Bridget Riley has created her first ceiling painting for the British School at Rome (BSR). The artist, best known for her murals and wall paintings, has created her vast new work in the BSR’s foyer, stretching across the four barrel vaults of the ceiling.
‘I would like to thank the British School at Rome for its invitation to paint the vaulting barrels of Edwin Lutyens’ beautiful ceiling,’ Riley says. ‘It was the beginning of an exhilarating visual chase. Exhilarating but not without hazard. Through many pleasurable challenges, encouraged by [chair of the BSR council] Mark Getty’s enthusiasm, I pursued this perceptual adventure and played my “colour acoustics” with great delight. Looking up, the colour of the skies offers a glimpse of nature in her most promising and serene mood.’
Riley revisits her Egyptian palette – inspired by the bold colours of Egyptian tomb paintings – for the work, which cements her existing ties with the BSR. As well as displaying an exhibition of her own work there in 1996, Riley has since endowed The Bridget Riley Fellowship which gives young painters the chance to develop their work over a six-month period at the BSR.
The BSR, as the largest British centre of interdisciplinary research in Europe, makes a natural home for Riley’s work. ‘We are thrilled that Bridget Riley has developed, executed, and given this wall painting to the BSR,’ adds chair of the BSR Council, Mark Getty. ‘It will adorn our entrance for decades to come, and pronounce clearly the strong relationship which exists between British and Commonwealth artists and thinkers, and the Roman and Italian world.’
