Embodied Visions: The Op Art of Bridget Riley 1961 – 65

Bridget Riley's Op paintings are icons of the 1960s, fascinating art lovers now as they did then.  Their central position in the art history of the period has not, however, been generally acknowledged.

      In this new account, France Follin reveals the complex associations between Riley's work and the culture in which it appeared – the 'white heat' of the emerging technocracy, counter-cultural utopias, the evolving legacy of Jackson Pollock, and disputes over the direction artistic modernism was taking. Riley's Op art work had a central place in contemorary cultural debates and is a point of focus at which many strands of art and cultural history come together.