The distortion of the black dots at this painting's center creates the optical illusion that the image surface is caving in. In this and other early works, Riley wanted to activate the relationship between the viewer and the work. As the title implies, the surface seems to be folding or opening, suggesting that the viewer could be swallowed up by it. While the black dots on the white surface don’t depict something or tell a story, as in a traditional painting, the sense of space this painting creates is not unlike the illusion created by the use of traditional linear perspective.
2007.
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Gallery 410Jesús Rafael Soto and Bridget Riley, the two artists paired in this gallery, never met. But they each emerged as a leader of the international Op art movement in the 1950s and ’60s.
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