Bridget Riley
Lagoon 1

1997
Oil on canvas
147 x 193 cm
The Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection
© Bridget Riley

“Lagoon 1” is Bridget Riley's first step towards a curvilinear movement in her Rhomboid paintings. A curve segment is incorporated in the vertical register of the stripes and the diagonal field. The title “Lagoon” can be seen as a remote echo of her visit to Tahiti and the round, lagoon-shaped cut-outs in Henri Matisse's famous artist book “Jazz” (1947). Matisse used this element because the lagoon curve is stationary yet dynamic. Similarly, Bridget Riley was interested in finding a non-directional movement that stayed in itself, much like a lagoon.

Text from: “Bridget Riley. The Complete Paintings”, ed. by The Bridget Riley Art Foundation. London, Thames & Hudson, 2018, Vol 2, p. 944