Bridget Riley wins major colour prize

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British artist Bridget Riley is the first female artist to be awarded the Sikkens Prize. Riley has received this prestigious award for the way in which she has continued to use colour in her work in the past five decades. 

Announcing the award, the Gemeentemuseum have commented:

The purity, subtlety and precision of [Riley’s]use of colour have led to a sensational oeuvre from which a new generation of artists is drawing inspiration. At the same time she has demonstrated her ability to appeal to a broad public with her abstract work.

The prize was presented in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague on 28 October 2012. The laudation was delivered by John Elderfield, emeritus curator at large of the Museum of Modern Art in New York,  and during the ceremony the neuroscientist Dick Swaab delivered the Mondrian Lecture 2012. The event also marked the opening of an exhibition of work by Bridget Riley in the Gemeentemuseum, including as a highlight a mural almost 20 metres long and 4 metres high.

To see examples of Bridget Riley's work, visit the website of her dealer, Karsten Schubert.

The Sikkens Prize has been awarded by the Sikkens Foundation (Netherlands) since 1959. In 1971, after amalgamation with another award, the Talens Prize,  the aim of the prize was stated as ‘To stimulate the social, cultural and scientific developments in society in which colour plays a specific role as a medium’.

For other articles in Cassone about Bridget Riley's work see:

Bridget Riley: The sixties start here

Bridget Riley's alchemical paintings