Bridget Riley

1 portrait of Bridget Riley

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Bridget Riley

by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1963
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x127158

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1567 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Kar photographed Riley at her second exhibition at Gallery One, 16 North Audley Street, London, in September 1963. This was the final show before Victor Musgrave closed the gallery, saying 'It has been very good but it's not very creative. And I don't like the atmosphere of the gallery world as much as I used to'.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Portraits, p. 122
  • Various contributors, National Portrait Gallery: A Portrait of Britain, 2014, p. 224 Read entry

    Born in London, Bridget Riley studied at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art. The leading exponent of op art in Britain, Riley worked initially in black and white, only introducing colour in 1967. Her first solo exhibition was held at Gallery One in 1962 and in 1964 she became the only woman to be included in The New Generation (1965) at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. A series of overseas shows that year further boosted her reputation and she won the International Prize for Painting at the 1968 Venice Biennale, the first British painter and female artist to achieve this distinction. Her meticulously executed paintings engage with visual sensation and until 1980 were mainly concerned with generating perceptual experiences, the basis of which is what Riley has termed ‘the pleasures of sight’. Recent British exhibitions have been held at the Serpentine Gallery (1999), Tate Britain (2003) and the National Gallery (2010). A display of her mid-1950’s portraits, exploring her early indebtedness to life-drawing, was held for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery in 2010.

    Of Armenian origin, Ida Kar (1908–74) established her photographic practice, in 1933 in Cairo, and moved to London in 1945 with her second husband, the poet and art dealer Victor Musgrave. Kar photographed Riley at her second exhibition at Gallery One, in September 1963.

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Events of 1963back to top

Current affairs

The Secretary of State for War, John Profumo is found to have lied to the House of Commons when he denied having an affair with the showgirl, Christine Keeler. The Profumo Affair was a public scandal for the Conservative party, and ultimately contributed to the resignation of Harold Macmillan.

Art and science

Doctor Who is first broadcast on the BBC with William Hartnell playing the Doctor. This long running science fiction series about an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his police-box-shaped Tardis has been watched by generations of viewers (often from behind the back of the sofa), and features imaginative, but traditionally low-budget, special effects, innovative electronic music, and the Doctor's greatest enemy, the Daleks.

International

John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Texas. The arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald for his murder did not prevent a score of conspiracy theories involving Cuba, the CIA, the KGB, and the Mafia among others.
Martin Luther King delivers his 'I have a dream' speech, marking an important moment in the civil rights movement in America and helping to secure him the Nobel Peace Prize' in 1964.

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