Fragment 2

Fragments of a theme

Bridget Riley explained the idea behind the series in a single statement: 'During the preparatory work for a painting, I may make images which are tangential to the problems posed by the particular painting. Some of these images I return to and develop later, others remain as fragments of a theme. These prints are a selection from such fragments in my folios and cover a period from 1962 to 1965.'

The result was Fragments, seven prints of geometric patterns that the Museum of Modern Art describes as 'torqued to create the slightly dizzying illusion of movement and three-dimensionality,' with curves, zigzags and dots that stretch and shrink across the picture. Fragment 2 is built from black crescents that, in one auction essay's words, 'move outward from the center in no clear pattern—turning, beginning and changing directions in seemingly random places.'

A Yale Center for British Art essay connects Fragment 2 to a group of Riley's black-and-white paintings of 1963 and 1964: Fall, Polarity, Crest and Current. The series was made while Riley was 'considering the tensions found in the tight and loose undulations of lines,' and it helped her see how prints could fit between her studio studies and her large finished paintings.

The artist

Bridget Riley was born on April 24, 1931, in Norwood, London. Her father was a printer by trade. During the Second World War she lived with her mother and sister in a cottage in Cornwall; one auction essay traces her way of seeing to childhood memories of reflections in rock pools on the Cornish coast. She studied at Goldsmiths from 1949 to 1952 and at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955.

A Jackson Pollock exhibition in London in the winter of 1958 made a strong impression on her. In 1960, in Venice, she sheltered from a storm in a piazza and watched the black-and-white checkerboard paving shimmer and warp under the water, an experience an auction essay calls a revelation. Her first solo exhibition, in London in the spring of 1962, showed the black-and-white paintings that made her name; the critic David Sylvester called it 'an assault' on the senses.

Sources differ on when she made her first print. One auction essay dates it to 1961, a print based on her painting Movement in Squares; the Yale Center for British Art says that in 1962, after that painting was shown in her first solo exhibition, she produced an edition of 26 untitled screenprints that sold out by the end of the month-long show. In 1964 she was one of twenty-four artists asked to contribute a screenprint to a portfolio for London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, which introduced her to Kelpra Studio, the Kentish Town print workshop where she would work for nearly a decade. She has had her paintings executed by assistants since 1961, planning each composition precisely and leaving the making to others, and she trusted the printers in the same way.

1965: The Responsive Eye

The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened The Responsive Eye on February 23, 1965. The exhibition, which ran until April 25, first drew worldwide attention to Riley and to Op Art, and her painting Current (1964) was reproduced on the cover of its catalog. Riley later called the label 'a funny old thing'; she said her zigzags and waves came from instinct, not mathematical formulas.

Fame came with a cost. The United States had no copyright protection for artists at the time, and Riley saw her imagery copied by commercial firms, which left her disillusioned with such exhibitions. Legislation followed in 1967 after an initiative by New York artists. The art critic John Russell, who championed her work, introduced her to the New York art world on trips during and after the show.

The Fragments were exhibited and published in London the same year. According to an auction specialist's account, they were the only series Riley made using Plexiglas. Two years later, in 1967, she introduced color into her paintings, and in 1968 she represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, becoming the first British contemporary painter, and the first woman, to win its International Prize for painting.

Printed on plastic

Riley wanted to print on what was then an unusual material, Plexiglas, a clear acrylic sheet. No one at Kelpra had experience printing on plastic, and a commercial printer was brought in to help. 'We were excited about trying new materials,' Riley said. 'We all wanted the new!'

The ink is printed on the back of the Plexiglas, and the sheet is framed against white paper. When light passes through, it illuminates the paper behind, so the black image seems to float in front of it. An auction specialist described the effect as 'a completely machine-made look, totally smooth and high-tech,' and said Plexiglas gave Riley 'another dimension, somewhere between sculpture and painting.'

Authentic impressions carry an incised signature and date, and the numbered impressions are numbered in pencil on the reverse, out of 75. Catalogs record four artist's proofs, and at least one impression sold in 2024 was described as 'presumably aside from the edition.' The prints catalogue raisonne edited by Karsten Schubert lists it as number 5b. Published sizes differ with how each source measures the sheet: the Yale catalogue gives 71.2 x 69.3 cm for the Plexiglas and 68.9 x 66.9 cm for the image; the Museum of Modern Art gives 71.1 x 67.3 cm; a 2023 New York catalog gives 28 x 27 in.

Tate titles its example 'Untitled [Fragment 2/10]'; other catalogs call it Untitled (Fragment 2). They are the same image.

Museums and sales

Tate in London bought an example in 1970, five years after it was made, and holds the whole series of seven; the Yale catalogue of Riley's work reproduces Tate's Fragment 2. The Museum of Modern Art in New York owns an impression given by the artist, cataloged with object number 122.2024.1, and shows the Fragments in a gallery that pairs Riley with the Venezuelan artist Jesus Rafael Soto.

Fragment 2 appears regularly at auction. Impression 9/75 was offered in a London editions sale in September 2019. Impression 30/75 was offered in an online sale in July 2020 with an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. On April 20, 2023, impression 38/75, with a provenance from a New York gallery, sold at auction in New York for $37,800 against an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. On March 27, 2024, an impression described as presumably aside from the edition sold in an online sale in London for £20,160.

The numbers

Medium

Screenprint in black and white on Plexiglas (acrylic sheet), printed on the reverse

Dimensions

71.2 x 69.3 cm Plexiglas; 68.9 x 66.9 cm image (Yale catalogue)

Catalogue raisonne

Schubert 5b

Edition

75, plus 4 artist's proofs

Printer

Kelpra Studio, London

Public collections

Tate, London (purchased 1970); Museum of Modern Art, New York (122.2024.1)

Timeline

1. Apr 24, 1931

   Bridget Riley is born in Norwood, London.

2. 1949

   Riley begins three years of study at Goldsmiths, followed by the Royal College of Art (1952-55).

3. 1958

   A Jackson Pollock exhibition in London makes a lasting impression on her.

4. 1960

   Sheltering from a storm in Venice, Riley watches a black-and-white pavement shimmer under water.

5. 1962

   Riley issues an edition of 26 screenprints based on Movement in Squares, which sells out during her first solo show (one source dates her first print to 1961).

6. 1962

   Riley's first solo exhibition opens in London.

7. 1962

   The earliest of the studies later gathered as Fragments date from this year, according to Riley.

8. 1964

   Riley contributes to an Institute of Contemporary Arts print portfolio and meets the printers at Kelpra Studio.

9. Feb 23, 1965

   The Responsive Eye opens at the Museum of Modern Art, with Riley's Current on the catalog cover.

10. 1965

    Fragments, seven screenprints on Plexiglas in editions of 75, are printed by Kelpra and exhibited and published in London.

11. 1967

    Riley introduces color into her paintings.

12. 1968

    Riley wins the International Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale.

13. 1970

    Tate purchases an example of Fragment 2.

14. Sep 2019

    Impression 9/75 is offered in an editions sale in London.

15. Jul 28, 2020

    Impression 30/75 is offered online with an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000.

16. Apr 20, 2023

    Impression 38/75 sells at auction in New York for $37,800.

17. Mar 27, 2024

    An impression presumably aside from the edition sells online in London for £20,160.

18. 2024

    The artist gives an impression to the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The world in 1965

• Jan 30, 1965

  Winston Churchill's state funeral takes place in London.

• Feb 21, 1965

  Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem.

• Mar 18, 1965

  Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov makes the first walk in space.

• Mar 25, 1965

  Martin Luther King Jr. and 25,000 marchers complete the march from Selma to Montgomery.

• Jul 14, 1965

  Mariner 4 flies by Mars and returns the first images of the planet.

• Aug 6, 1965

  President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act.

• Aug 15, 1965

  The Beatles play Shea Stadium in New York, the first stadium concert in the US.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Fragment 2 is number 61 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (57 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Riley's father was a printer by trade, but she was wary of printmaking at first: 'For me, prints were what you saw in the British Museum, with that very handmade look.'
• The Fragments are printed on the back of clear Plexiglas, so the image sits behind the surface and seems to float over the white paper behind it.
• No one at Riley's print studio had printed on plastic before, so a commercial printer had to be brought in.
• Riley's painting Current, one of the works Fragment 2 relates to, was on the cover of the catalog for MoMA's 1965 Op Art exhibition The Responsive Eye.
• Another print in the series, Fragment 6, is nearly identical to a painting, White Discs 3, that Riley completed decades later.
• As a board member of the National Gallery in London in the 1980s, Riley blocked a plan to give an adjoining site to developers, helping ensure the later Sainsbury Wing.