Marking 60 years since Bridget Riley’s inclusion in the landmark 1965 exhibition The Responsive
Eye at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert’s loan exhibition features an
impressive selection of early Riley black and white paintings and drawings from 1961 – 1966.
The exhibition at MoMA was of huge consequence to Riley’s career and subsequent international reputation. It was a powerful endorsement by the great institution, which reproduced Current (1964) on the catalogue cover and whose curator, William C. Seitz, singled the artist out in the catalogue essay. The years surrounding this watershed moment were defined by a prolific period of experimentation. In 1961, Riley began her practice of pure abstraction in a limited palette of black and white, an aesthetic enquiry that lasted until 1966 when the artist began to introduce red and blue into her work.
The exhibition is curated with the support of Bridget Riley and her studio and includes six important
black and white paintings: Horizontal Vibrations First Version, Black to White Discs (1962),
Burn (1964), Pause (1964), White Discs 2 (1964), and Blaze 4 (1964). Displayed alongside related
works on paper, the show provides insight into this important period. The unique vocabulary that
Riley established between these years – the manipulation and combination of fundamental shapes
to trigger internal patterns of seeing – are the principles that have sustained her entire output and
continue to occupy her practice to this day.
Bridget Riley: The Responsive Eye, May 5th – May 16th 2025, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert New York
The exhibition coincides with TEFAF New York, where the gallery will present a group booth (booth 314).
About the artist
Bridget Riley (b. London, 1931) lives and works in London, Cornwall, and France. Recent solo presentations include: Dia Center for the Arts, New York (2000-2001); Museum Haus Esters and Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany (2002); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2004-2005); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2008); Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (travelled to Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery; Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery; Southampton City Art Gallery; 2009-2010); National Gallery, London (2010-2011); Art Institute of Chicago (2014-2015); The Courtauld Gallery, London (2015); De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, England (travelled to Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; 2015); Graves Gallery, Museum Sheffield, England (2016); Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand (2017); the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura, Japan (2018), ; the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh (2019); the Hayward Gallery, London (2019-2020); the Yale Center for British Art, New
Haven, Connecticut (2022), Art Institute of Chicago (2023), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Morgan Library, New York (2023).
Work by the artist is included in museum and public collections worldwide, including Art Institute of Chicago; Arts Council, United Kingdom; British Council, United Kingdom; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Kunstmuseum Bern; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate, United Kingdom.
