Sunday 19 December 2010

Red

left: Portrait of a Man, Jan van Eyck, 1433
centre: Red with Red, Bridget Riley, 2007
right: Copy of van Eyck's Portrait of a Man, Bridget Riley, 1946

2 comments:

Peter Clothier said...

Fascinating, Jean! I checked out the National Gallery site, and found it interesting that she wanted to include the masterpiece paintings in her show. I conclude that she wants her work to be seen in the context of her reverence for those masters. Her copy of the van Eyck was made in 1946!

Jean said...

Peter, yes, she was 15 or 16 I think, when she painted that! The Van Eyck is one of my very favourite paintings - I always go and see it when I'm at the National Gallery. All the old masters included were notable for their use of flowing colour and shapes and were, I thought, very resonant with Bridget Riley's abstracts. I think she wants to show the influence, not just her reverence.