Brilliant Bridget Sell Out
Brilliant Bridget Sell Out
A talk featuring artist Bridget Riley in conversation at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery this Wednesday is a sell out.
The talk was organised as part of the hugely successful in ‘Bridget Riley – Flashback’ exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Waterhall. The show, which opened on 6th February and continues until 23 May, has already attracted nearly 6,000 visitors.
The exhibition brings together iconic paintings from the Arts Council Collection and never before seen drawings loaned by the artist herself, as well as a painting from Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery’s own collection.
Since the mid-1960s Bridget Riley has been celebrated for her distinctive, optically vibrant paintings and is one of the foremost proponents of ‘Op Art’ - a genre of visual art that uses geometric shapes and vivid colours to create optical illusions. The show includes notable paintings from the start of her career as well as ambitious and powerful works of recent years.
One of the original purposes of building the Arts Council Collection was to support emerging artists through the purchase of their work: ‘Bridget Riley – Flashback’ is the first in a new series of exhibitions that centre on one of those founding artist’s works. One of the highlights of the show is Riley’s iconic Movement in Squares, which was purchased in 1962, the year in which it was made. This will be an added delight for local audiences as the painting was unavailable for the Arts Council Collection’s ‘How to Improve the World’ exhibition in Birmingham in 2007.
Councillor Martin Mullaney Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture said; “I am delighted that ‘Bridget Riley – Flashback’ is proving to be such a great success. It shows that local people have a great appetite for contemporary art and this is a great opportunity to see works by one of Britain’s most important living artists.”
A limited edition print signed by Bridget Riley is for sale in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery shop.
For further information please visit www.bmag.org.uk or telephone 0121 464 8887. Free entry.
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