Bridget Riley b.1931
Untitled (Fragment 2), 1965
screenprint on plexiglas
27 x 26¼ ins
signed in margin (in reverse from back)edition of 75

Provenance
Private collection

Exhibited
Arts Council, London, Bridget Riley, Silkscreen Prints 1965-1978, 1980, cat no.2
Hayward Gallery, Touring Exhibition, Bridget Riley: Complete Prints 1962-2001, Arts Council of Great Britain, 2002-2003, cat no.5b

Literature
Robert Kudielka, Bridget Riley, Silkscreen Prints 1965-1978, Arts Council of Great Britain, London 1980, cat no.2
Lynn MacRitchie etc, Bridget Riley: Complete Prints 1962-2001, Arts Council of Great Britain, London 2001, cat no.5b, illustrated



Technically the Fragments group were an innovation: the first edition of silk-screen prints on plexi-glass ever made. Like many artists in the early sixties, Bridget Riley was interested in exploring new materials. In search of a pristine ground she decided to print the white on to a clear plastic which, incidentally, gave more body to the work as well.

Robert Kudielka ‘Introduction’ to Working Methods 4: Bridget Riley: Silkscreen prints 1965-78, Arts Council of Great Britain, London 1980

The Kelpra studio, despite its considerable technical expertise, did not know how to handle the unfamiliar material (plexiglass). The work had to be sent out to a commercial sign printer experienced in working with plastic, for the printing was to be done directly on the back of the plastic sheet. The black colour was laid first, then the white ground added: the completed image was immediately visible through the transparent material. There was no need for the prints to be covered with glass, which had attracted Riley to experiment with the material in the first place. Her intuition proved sound: the transparency of the plexiglass seems to give the prints a new sort of life, a perfect marriage of image and support. Hovering somewhere between painting and sculpture, the Fragments seem to have floated in from another world, where visual sensations can become entities in themselves. Perfectly realised, they still look as if they had been finished yesterday, dazzling in their composure and completeness.

Lynn MacRitchie, ‘Bridget Riley Prints’ in Bridget Riley : Complete Prints 1962-2001, London, 2001