Bridget Riley _300
She has always dedicated time to life drawing and, as a young painter, copied Old Masters to understand how they achieved their powerful effects.
“She’ll talk about twisting a straight line and comparing that to a painter drawing a life model and asking them to adopt a contra-posto – leaning on one hip with one leg bent that gives a twist in the body that suddenly makes it more interesting.”
Curating the exhibition has been a labour of love for Douglas, who has worked closely with Riley to prepare the show and is “in almost daily contact with her on the telephone”.
As well as works from the Art Council’s collection, it will feature studies and sketches loaned by the artist.
Douglas had the enviable task of visiting her studio to help her choose which ones to include.
“She’d be opening up drawers of drawings that had never been out of the studio in 40 years,” she recalls.
“It was really exciting to watch her picking the Sellotape off rolls of drawings, and even she hadn’t looked at them for 40-odd years.
“The studies really show you how the mind of the artist works.
“They are incredibly beautiful in their own right, but fascinating because they have the annotations all over them.”
Riley herself is an intriguing character, described by the writer Will Self, who knows her well, as “dynamic” and “feisty”.
“She is 79 now but still as active and energetic and intellectually engaged as she ever was,” says Douglas.
“You have to understand her as a woman began working in the early 1960s when the world was a very, very different place for a woman and you had to have a certain strength of character to pursue ideas and negotiate the art world as she has done so successfully.
“She’s a great intellectual force and her work demonstrates that.
“People should really look hard at the paintings when they’re in Liverpool and see the immense complexity of them. They’re not just stripes.”
Riley is “extremely excited about opening a show in Liverpool” and will be attending the launch, adds Douglas.
She is a fan of the Walker, which owns some of her work, and “immensely enjoyed” the collections on a recent visit to discuss the installation of her own exhibition.
She has created work for the city too – transforming a corridor of the Royal Liverpool Hospital into a geometric piece of art in 1983.
Sadly, the installation, which took three years to complete using horizontal coloured band silk-screened on to vinyl sections, has not survived.
Even so, Douglas reveals: “It’s still a memory that Bridget holds very dear.”
BRIDGET RILEY: Flashback is at the Walker Art Gallery, September 25 to December 13.
