Wearing stripes, Bridget Riley and the seaside
Photo: Bridget Riley by Ida Kar
Bridget Riley loves a good stripe. The 84-year-old Op Artist has been using them in her eye-popping artwork for over 50 years. My parallel-line loving history follows a similar timeline. Having grown-up in a seaside town surrounded by deck chairs, sticks of rock, ridges in the sand, I’ve always been partial to a linear pattern. So, I was excited to see the Bridget Riley: Curve paintings 1961 – 2014 exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion:
This modernist building in Bexhill-on-Sea feels like the perfect place for a Bridget Riley exhibition…
26th July 1979: Bridget Riley, British painter (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)
And yes, some of the wavy paintings do feel like they are undulating. The exhibition follows Riley’s move from sixties monochrome to more abstract, Matisse-like designs and is well worth a day trip. I was fascinated by some of her earlier work on graph paper showing how the different variations of stripe are calculated (my mind as well as my eyes boggled).
Riley not only paints parallel lines, she wears her stripes well, too. No prizes for spotting the tenuous link…
On the subject of wearing stripes, I am very happy with the Ines de la Fressange Breton tops I bought from Uniqlo earlier this year and can highly recommend these striped boat neck t-shirts made from ‘sturdy’ cotton (available HERE).
And here’s some more seaside-inspired stripy stuff:
Discussion (4 Comments)
Tove Kjellerod says:
I am forever dedicated to an orderly outfit. Stripes,checks and block colours. Suits me fine!
What a treat for a stripe lover like me! I particularly love the photo where she has on a textured shirt with wavy stripes in front of a way stripe painting. Art into life (or life into art).
Carie H says:
Continually mystified at the love of horizontal stripes, especially on tops. UNLESS you have NO chest…For most of us “average” female bodies with curves, stripes make us look wider and fatter in all the wrong places. (I’m noting your collection of pics and that seems true even on slim, boyish models.) Vertical stripes are nearly impossible to find, which would elongate us….good luck with that wish.
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I wish I could get to that great exhibit in what looks like the perfect setting for Riley’s work. We caught a show of her stuff at the National Gallery a few years ago and loved it!