In January 1965 the international art world converged on New York to pay
homage to a brilliant new star. The glittering opening of The
Responsive Eye, a major exhibition of abstract painting at the Museum
of Modern Art, signalled the latest phenomenon, op art--and its center
of attention was a young painter named Bridget Riley, whose dazzling
painting Current appeared on the cover of the catalogue. Riley's first
solo show in New York sold out, and, following a feature in Vogue
magazine, the Riley "look" became a fashion craze. Overnight, she had
become a sensation, yet only three years earlier, she was a virtual
unknown. How did success arrive so suddenly?
Authored by the acclaimed curator and writer Paul Moorhouse, A Very
Very Person is the first biography of Bridget Riley and addresses that
tantalizing question. Focusing on her early years, it tells the story of
a remarkable woman whose art and life were entwined in surprising ways.
This intimate narrative explores Riley's wartime childhood spent in the
idyllic Cornish countryside, her subsequent struggles to find her way as
an artist, and the personal challenges she faced before finally arriving
as one of the world's most celebrated artists in Swinging 1960s London.
Paul Moorhouse is is an art historian and curator. He was Senior
Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London (2005-17) and Senior
Curator at Tate, London (1985-2005), where he curated a major Bridget
Riley retrospective exhibition in 2003. Recent books include Cindy
Sherman (2014), Bridget Riley: From Life (2010), the award-winning
Gerhard Richter: Painting Appearances (2009), Pop Art Portraits
(2007) and Richard Long: Walking the Line (2003).
