A Master in her own right:
colours and shapes
Klee in her mind...
Before this exhibition started out, the link between Bridget Riley and Paul Klee became important due to the creation of a Klee exhibition between 2001 and 2002. With the help of Robert Kudielka, Riley prepares a Paul Klee exhibition for the Hayward Gallery, London.
20 Years later, another exhibition started out in a museum dedicated to Paul Klee. The show titled "Bridget Riley: Looking and Seeing, Doing and Making" focus on a key of works made after her visit to Egypt in 1979 and 1980.
After her stay to Egypt, the exhibition unfold (without giving context) into a series of open spaces, made thematically or in series.
Thus, the British artist, which is know due to her Op Art picture is unfolding her process in front of our eyes. From the selection of the works made by the artist itself to rarely shown preliminary work, drawings and studies, which reveal Bridget Riley’s day-to-day life in her studio.
Her works in colours, will drastically change after this trip in Egypt, like Paul Klee. Both of them had a profound inspiration from their respective travels to North Africa. Those trips are the starting point of the show, when Paul Klee travelled to Tunisia in 1914, and later in Egypt in 1928 to discover and experience a "breakthrough into colour".
Almost 50 years later, the British artist will visit Egypt in the winter of 1979/1980. Inspired by the tomb paintings in ancient places, the architecture and the contrast between desert and vegetation in the Nile Valley, this territory was a refresh in the artist oeuvre. It will lead to the use of the so-called "Egyptian palette" which consists of seven colours: turquoise, blue, red, yellow and green, black and white.
From the beginning my work has been rooted in the observation of na- ture and the dynamics of structure and movement. I have always looked at the art of the past, not only out of love and an abiding interest but also to learn, to inform and understand my work as an abstract painter. In this, I have followed the practice of Seurat, Cezanne and Delacroix, to name only a few – and Paul Klee.
Both our visits to North Africa, Klee's to Tunisia in 1914 and mine to Egypt several decades later, were extraordinarily revealing. It is as though the blazing canvas of the desert prompts a reaction of strong colour.
It has been a great pleasure to respond to the Zentrum Paul Klee’s invitation which has allowed me to retrace the profound effect that Egypt has had on the development of my colour work, bringing my past into the present through this exhibition.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Zentrum Paul Klee
Date: 10.6.2022 – 21.8.2022
Curators: Bridget Riley, Martin Waldmeier, Nina Zimmer and Susanne A.Kudielka
Ticket: Available on the website of the Zentrum Paul Klee OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Zentrum Paul Klee
Zentrum Paul Klee
Monument im Fruchtland 3
CH-3001 Bern
Phone: +41 31 359 01 01
Fax: +41 31 359 01 02
Mail: info@zpk.org