Fragments 1-7 (the full set)

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In 1965 Riley took the bold step of attempting to print directly onto Plexiglas, a form of transparent plastic. Artists in the early Sixties had left post-war austerity behind them and were inspired by the sense that they were creating a brave new world. “We were excited about trying new materials - we all wanted the new!” Riley explains.

Plexiglas, clean, clear, fresh and synthetic, symbolised this sense of a new beginning: anything was possible. Radically, the black figure was printed first, the white ground added afterwards: the completed image was immediately visible through the transparent material. There was no need for the prints to be covered in glass, which had attracted Riley to experiment with the material in the first place. Her intuition proved sound: the transparency of the Plexiglas seems to give the prints a new sort of life, a perfect marriage of image and support. She called these works Fragments and they were first exhibited at the influential Robert Fraser Gallery in London in 1965. For the artist the Fragments were never-fully-explored ideas to which she would return during the course of her work.

Riley made seven Fragments this way and full sets rarely come to the market. Together with the seven works on paper from the same period, the total group of fourteen has seldom been seen and is one of a tiny few in existence.

Fragments 1-7 (the full set)

Bridget Riley

Artist: Bridget Riley (b.1931)
Title: Fragments 1-7 (the full set)
Medium: Screenprints in black and white on Plexiglas (on reverse of sheet)
Date: 1965
Sizes: Dimensions as a group variable
Fragment 1 - 26 ½ x 33 in : (67.4 x 83.9 cm)
Fragment 2 - 28 x 27 ¼ in : (71.2 x 69.3 cm)
Fragment 3 - 24 ½ x 31 ¾ in : (62.2 x 80.5 cm)
Fragment 4 - 28 x 27 in : (71.2 x 68.6 cm)
Fragment 5 - 24 ¾ x 32 in : (63.0 x 81.4 cm)
Fragment 6 – 28 ¼ x 29 in : (74.5 x 73.8 cm)
Fragment 7 – 20 x 39 in : (50.9 x 99.2 cm)
Framed Sizes: Dimensions as a group variable
Fragment 1 - 28 ¼ x 34 ¾ in : 72.0 x 88.5 cm
Fragment 2 - 29 ½ x 28 ¾ in : 75.0 x 73.0 cm
Fragment 3 - 26 ½ x 33 ¾ in : 67.5 x 85.6 cm
Fragment 4 - 30 x 28 ¾ in : 76.2 x 73.4 cm
Fragment 5 - 26 ¾ x 34 in : 67.7 x 86.2 cm
Fragment 6 - 31 ¼ x 30 ¾ in : 79.2 x 78.5 cm
Fragment 7 - 21 ¾ x 41 in : 55.6 x 104.0 cm
Edition: Each from the edition of 75
Inscriptions: Each scratch-signed in reverse on verso
Printer: Kelpra Studio, London
Publisher: Robert Fraser Gallery, London
Provenance: Private Collection, USA
Literature: "Bridget Riley - The Complete Prints 1962-2020", The Bridget Riley Art Foundation, Thames & Hudson, London, 2020, nos. BRS 6A-6G, pp.60-73 (illus.)
Schubert 5A-5G
Exhibited: Robert Fraser Gallery, 1965
Tate Gallery, 1973
Arts Council, 2001-03
(other examples exhib.)
Reference: AC25-30/36