Bridget Riley.
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Bridget Riley: Movement in Squares, 1961 and Golden Rectangles.
Successive Golden Rectangles dividing a Golden Rectangle into squares
(Riley's Movement in Squares, 1961)
Movement in Squares, 1961 by Bridget Riley
Visual disruption is the key principle throughout. Riley explained: ‘a certain situation is stated. Certain elements with that situation remain constant, others precipitate the destruction of themselves by themselves. Recurrently as a result of the cyclic movement of repose, disturbance and repose, the original situation is restated.’ In Movement in Squares, a sequence of shapes - squares in this case – proceeds from left to right. Their height remains constant while their width is diminished. This structural contraction creates the sensation of a temporary disturbance that is resolved by a partial return to the stable square. Disrupting a regular progression in this way has an emotional resonance. Riley saw her intention as making a statement about ‘stabilities and instabilities, certainties and uncertainties.’
Source:
Tate Britain.org.uk
Bridget Riley
Bridget Louise Riley (b. 24 April 1931 in Norwood, London) is an English painter who is one of the foremost proponents of op
art.
The National Gallery Exhibition:
Bridget Riley Paintings and Related Work
Date and time
24 November 2010 – 22 May 2011
Sunley Room
Admission free
Bridget Riley is one of the most significant and original painters of our time. The Sunley Room exhibition will enable visitors to investigate how Riley’s work relates to the National Gallery Collection.
Recent work
The exhibition focuses upon Bridget Riley’s most recent paintings. Two of Riley’s works will be made directly on to the walls of the exhibition space. Riley and her studio will create a new wall drawing, ‘Composition with Circles 7’, especially for the longest wall of the Sunley Room. In addition a version of the wall-painting, ‘Arcadia’ – last seen at the major 2008 retrospective in Paris – will be recreated on a larger scale.
Source:
The National Gallery.org.uk.
Op Art
Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions.
"Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing."
Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.
Source:
WIkipedia, Op Art
Golden rectangle
A golden rectangle
is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio,
one-to-phi, that is, approximately 1:1.618. A distinctive
feature of this shape is that when a square section is
removed, the remainder is another golden rectangle, that is,
with the same proportions as the first. Square removal can
be repeated infinitely, which leads to an approximation of
the golden or Fibonacci spiral.
Droste Effect
The Droste effect is a specific kind of recursive picture, one that in heraldry is termed mise en abyme. An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of itself in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear. This smaller version then depicts an even smaller version of itself in the same place, and so on. Only in theory could this go on forever; practically, it continues only as long as the resolution of the picture allows, which is relatively short, since each iteration geometrically reduces the picture's size. It is a visual example of a strange loop, a self-referential system of instancing which is the cornerstone of fractal geometry.
Source:
Wikipedia,
Droste Effect.
Geometric Abstraction
Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions.
Bridget Riley: Movement in Squares, 1961 and Golden Rectangles