Description
Book Synopsis'"As Paul Moorhouse shows in this thorough and sensitive first biography, which concentrates on [Riley's] early years up to the age of thirty-four, it was only after many false starts, bracing shocks and firm decisions that Riley found her way as an abstract painter in the early 1960s with her eye-dazzling lines, squares, curves ... in ultra-hard-edged black-and-white". –Times Literary Supplement
"In “Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person – The Early Years,” Paul Moorhouse ... homes in on the period between the artist’s childhood and her earliest success, and makes a surprising but compelling case for the influence of landscape on Ms Riley’s distinctive style." –Wall Street Journal
"An entertaining and informative text that adds greatly to our understanding of a very prominent and still highly intriguing British artist." –Hyperallergic
In January 1965 the international art world converged on New York to pay homage to a brilliant new star. The glittering opening of The Responsive Eye, a major exhibition of abstract painting at the Museum of Modern Art, signalled the latest phenomenon, op art – and its centre of attention was a young painter named Bridget Riley, whose dazzling painting Current appeared on the cover of the catalogue. Riley’s first solo show in New York sold out, and, following a feature in Vogue magazine, the Riley 'look' became a fashion craze. Overnight, she had become a sensation, yet only three years earlier, she was a virtual unknown. How did success arrive so suddenly?
Authored by the acclaimed curator and writer Paul Moorhouse, A Very Very Person is the first biography of Bridget Riley and addresses that tantalising question. Focusing on her early years, it tells the story of a remarkable woman whose art and life were entwined in surprising ways. This intimate narrative explores Riley’s wartime childhood spent in the idyllic Cornish countryside, her subsequent struggles to find her way as an artist, and the personal challenges she faced before finally arriving as one of the world’s most celebrated artists in Swinging Sixties London.
Trade ReviewAn exceptionally informative and deftly crafted biography of an impressive woman and her equally impressive artistic accomplishments, "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person: The Early Years" features a center section of illustrations and is an extraordinary and engaging read from beginning to end.--Julie Summers "Midwest Book Review " In "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person--The Early Years," Paul Moorhouse, a former senior curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, doesn't attempt a full-scale biography but instead homes in on the period between the artist's childhood and her earliest success, and makes a surprising but compelling case for the influence of landscape on Ms. Riley's distinctive style.--Ann Landi "Wall Street Journal " As Paul Moorhouse shows in this thorough and sensitive first biography, which concentrates on her early years up to the age of thirty-four, it was only after many false starts, bracing shocks and firm decisions that Riley found her way as an abstract painter in the early 1960s with her eye-dazzling lines, squares, curves, ovals, circles, stripes and zigzags in ultra-hard-edged black-and-white.--Jerome Boyd Maunsell "Times Literary Supplement " [A Very Very Person] is an entertaining and informative text that adds greatly to our understanding of a very prominent and still highly intriguing British artist.--Hyperallergic
Table of ContentsPreface 9 1 Ancestral landscape 15 2 A very very person 27 3 Unearthly beauty 36 4 Leaving Trevemadar 45 5 First steps 52 6 Great promise 59 7 The fledgling 72 8 To Goldsmiths 78 9 Looking and drawing 85 10 The bargain not kept 96 11 Paradise and disaster 105 12 Crisis 115 13 Recovery 125 14 Developing process 168 15 A visual education 178 16 Looking becomes the subject 184 17 Italy 193 18 Into black 203 19 Movement in Squares 213 20 Gallery One 221 21 New horizons 229 22 Saint Elmo’s fire 236 23 Acclaim 248 Notes 260 Index 264 Photographic Credits 269
