Bridget Riley’s Intervals Set; Blue/Green, Orange/Blue, Green/Purple (2021) demonstrates her sustained fascination with rhythm, perception, and the dynamic possibilities of color. Created in the final decades of her long career, this series reflects the refinement of an artistic language she had been cultivating since the 1960s, when she emerged as one of the leading figures of Op Art. While her early black-and-white works played with disorienting optical patterns, Riley’s later practice has been deeply invested in the interactions of pure color, exploring how hue, saturation, and sequence alter our experience of space and movement.
In this set of three screenprints, Riley employs horizontal bands of alternating colors stacked in repeated intervals. Each composition features five to six blocks, each subdivided into carefully chosen chromatic sequences. The Blue/Green variation balances cool tones with muted earthy accents, producing a harmonious yet vibrating optical effect. Orange/Blue introduces a more energetic contrast, with complementary hues sparking tension and creating a visual flicker between warmth and coolness. Green/Purple offers a subtler but equally compelling dialogue, where closely related hues shift in prominence depending on the viewer’s focus.
The repetition of form across the three works underscores Riley’s exploration of visual rhythm. Much like a musical score, these compositions are structured through intervals—measured repetitions that create tempo, variation, and resonance. The viewer’s eye is compelled to move up and down the stacked bands, perceiving differences not just between colors but also in the way color relationships shift across the three prints when seen as a set. This sense of temporal experience—where perception unfolds through time—is central to Riley’s approach.
The simplicity of the horizontal format belies the sophistication of the optical effects. Riley’s disciplined use of geometry eliminates distraction, allowing color itself to become the subject. The viewer is made acutely aware of how neighboring hues influence each other: a green appears brighter when placed against purple, a blue deepens when offset by orange. Through these orchestrations, Riley transforms the flat surface into a vibrating, active field.
The title Intervals speaks directly to this idea of spacing, timing, and relationality. Just as intervals in music define harmony, dissonance, or rhythm, Riley’s chromatic intervals structure the visual tempo of these works. By presenting the set as a sequence, she extends her inquiry into perception beyond the individual print, inviting the viewer to compare, contrast, and move between them.
Created in 2021, these works exemplify Riley’s remarkable consistency and evolution over six decades. They reveal an artist still deeply committed to her exploration of the fundamental principles of seeing. Rather than offering fixed images, Riley provides visual experiences that unfold through time, requiring the active engagement of the viewer.
Intervals Set is a testament to Riley’s enduring mastery of color and form. By distilling her visual language to its essentials—horizontal stripes, repeated patterns, and carefully calibrated hues—she creates works that are at once rigorous and sensuous, intellectual and experiential. The set reinforces her place as one of the most important figures in postwar abstraction, an artist whose work continues to expand the possibilities of perception and the language of color.