Arrest 2

Bridget Riley defines nature as a "dynamism of visual forces—an event rather than an appearance." Her aim is to express these forces in abstract depictions of rhythms, tempos, contrasts and reversals that parallel the range of human emotion. The rippling, vertical lines in Arrest 2 modulate from black to cool gray, creating vibrant spatial illusions that both delight and frustrate the eye.

Art critics of the 1960s dubbed Riley's optical painting style Op Art. By the time her work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965, it already had been embraced by the fashion and design industry. Today her paintings are inspiring a new generation of abstractionists because of what they say about the magic of seeing.