Deutscher and Hackett

'The basis of my paintings is this: that in each of them a particular situation is stated. Certain elements within that situation remain constant. Others precipitate the destruction of themselves by themselves. Recurrently as a result of the cyclic movement of repose, disturbance and repose, the original situation is re-stated.'¹

Featuring black elliptical dots on white ground, arranged in a grid but turning fractionally to create a disconcerting, almost irritating, instability of focus, Untitled No. II, 1966 highlights brilliantly this principle of repose, disturbance and repose - so central to Riley's art from this period. By disrupting the regular progression of dots in this way, she thus heightens the emotional resonance of her work to create intense physical and psychological responses within the viewer - effects not dissimilar to those precipitated by contemporary 'happenings'.² In her fascination with the concept of' disturbance' and specifically, the way in which an internal pattern could be manipulated to work against its larger structure, Untitled No. II also betrays the influence of Pisan Romanesque architecture which Riley had appreciated firsthand during her travels to Italy in 1960 with friend and mentor, Maurice de Sausmarez. Indeed, like the distinctive medieval buildings where the complicated inlays and bands of black and white marble conspire to deny the overall shape of a facade , so too here Riley proffers a sense of disturbed equilibrium within what seems a rigid serial structure - the essential 'subject' of her art from this period.

1. Riley, B., 'Perception is the Medium', Artnews, vol. 64, no. 6, October 1965, pp. 32-33
2. Ibid.

VERONICA ANGELATOS