In Pictures: Bridget Riley's Learning to See at Turner Contemporary

This week, Margate's Turner Contemporary opens a major new exhibition of work by Bridget Riley exhibition.

Conceived in close collaboration with the abstract artist, Learning to See explores Riley’s connection to the natural world in her work and ongoing study of the sensory experience of sight. Rather than making it a chronological retrospective, paintings created throughout her 60 year career sit side by side, allowing visitors to really see how themes and ideas in her work have persisted and developed in that time. In some cases, Riley has started and returned to paintings decades apart.

Sometimes, when people see Riley’s work for the first time, they can find it too rigid and tightly structured. This exhibition reveals a playfulness and experimental spirit that perhaps is not always obvious. Through masterful use of colours and shapes, paintings seem to move and change depending on where you stand. One in particular - Streak 3, 1980 - did such strange things to my vision with its mass of pulsating lines that it started to feel like I wasn’t looking at a real object at all. 

Accompanying the exhibition, the Clore Learning Studio has been converted into a drawing studio for the next year - running beyond the exhibition itself - where classes will be offered to children and adults. 

The exhibition opens on Saturday, November 22, with various special events from 5-7pm - including a chance to see the drawing studio and take part in a class with artist Geoffrey Chambers, plus a DJ set from Coco Cole downstairs in the Sunley Gallery, where there will be a full bar serving drinks.