Untitled (Winged Curve) 1966

Curator: This is Bridget Riley’s "Untitled (Winged Curve)", created in 1966. It currently resides in a private collection, and is a prime example of her Op Art work. Editor: The title certainly fits. The piece evokes flight, or at least, the stylized idea of a wing in motion. There’s something both very clean and a bit unsettling about the optical illusion here. Curator: Unsettling is a fine way to put it. Riley's interest lies in the behavior of forms, and how they trigger visual sensations in the viewer. Notice how she deploys black and white bands to create this perception of movement. Editor: The alternating contrast really emphasizes that sensation. I'm intrigued by the repetition. It's almost hypnotic. The symbol could be seen as quite primal in some cultures--a glyph suggesting upward mobility and transcendence. Curator: Or perhaps even a visual equivalent to the act of breathing, of lungs expanding and contracting. From a formalist standpoint, we can note how the white space isn't just background, but an active element that breathes with those black curves. The hard-edged precision is key, rejecting painterly texture for pure, optical experience. Editor: It’s a bit paradoxical, isn't it? Striving for a completely pure, intellectual exercise, and yet the image manages to bypass logic and strike at a much older, intuitive part of our minds. Viewers from different eras may find continuity here: in prehistoric markings on stones or even digital forms found on modern screens. Curator: Precisely. It's that dance between intellect and instinct that makes Riley’s work so compelling. She uses the language of abstraction to access something far beyond simple representation. Editor: It also highlights how symbols have an existence outside any original intention. An artist’s intentions always meet with an audience’s cultural knowledge, biases, and emotional life to take on unique meaning. Curator: A fruitful tension to keep in mind while continuing to study the piece on your own. Editor: Indeed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly have a great need to reassess every stripe in my closet!