Bridget Riley

Rowan Gallery, London, whence acquired by the present owner

The following condition report was prepared by the painting restorer Phil Young. CONDITION The canvas and stretcher are flat and in good condition, there is no distortion in the stretcher and the canvas is at a good tension. There are a number of dents in the canvas, notably in the upper centre around 10cm from the upper edge where two inward dents close to each other are seen. Just in from the centre of the right edge are two more soft dents (i.e. there is no sharp crease or other distortion) caused by poor handling. A sharper distortion has been caused in the lower centre from a hard contact against the surface; this distortion runs for around 13cm horizontally. There are some light dents in from the left edge. The corners, especially the lower corners, have some rubbing and scuffing and there is a general surface dirt with fly spots, small drip marks and small pale splash marks. The distortions around the joints as seen from the sides are normal for these works as are the finger marks over the grey painted edges. CONCLUSIONS The work is in good and sound condition with little direct damage to the paint film. The above points of condition can be treated with minimal intervention.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The developments seen in Riley's paintings of the early 1980s had brought her to a point in 1986 where a further major redirection in her work was about to occur. In the spring of that year she introduced short diagonal forms to the vertical stripes, such as those seen in Broken Gaze (see Lot 175) of 1986. This brief period of work, from which very few examples exist, was very quickly transmuted into a new form that saw much larger diagonal shapes appearing on the canvas, breaking across the underlying vertical structure and counteracting them with the strong suggestions of movement and spatial recession. This form would be one which would occupy the artist for much of the next decade, but the earliest examples, of which the present work is one, use a basic format of a slightly off-square canvas divided into fourteen vertical bands. The strong diagonal emphasis is suggestive of that found in the much earlier Cataract and Arrest paintings of the late 1960s, but whilst those works had concentrated on disturbing the perceived surface as one layer, the paintings of 1987 onwards ('zigs' in studio parlance) create a much greater sense of regression and progression, the diagonal forms suggesting that they both pass in front of and behind the vertical structure of the painting. This ambiguity of space, always a concern of Riley, is now developed further than in any previous works, the viewer now being less a spectator on the image being unfolded before them than an active participant in an image which constantly rearranges itself in a form that is virtually impossible to define.   

The careful balancing and unbalancing of the forms in these paintings is controlled in such a way as to allow the image to constantly form and reform before the viewer and echoes both the artist's lifelong interest in the works of Piet Mondrian and the musical analogies that have so often been applied to her work.