As part of a new display by Bridget Riley (b.1931), one of the most influential artists of our time, Tate Britain has announced the major gift of one of Riley’s more recent works. Joining her fourth exhibition with the institution, Concerto I 2024 encapsulates the artist’s remarkable working life, contributing to the dialogue Riley began six-decades ago surrounding the sensory experience of sight.
Bridget Riley new display at Tate Britain
Words by
Cressida Valentine
21st July 2025
A voyage of visual discovery begins at Tate Britain's new Bridget Riley display. Running until June 2026, Tate Britain features a major new gift from the artist in a display, which celebrates Riley's 6 decades of influence on abstract art.
Riley explores the sensory experience of sight in her colourful painting 'Concerto I 2024'
Premiering at Tate Britain, Concerto I is one of many paintings demonstrating the long-standing relationship between Riley and Tate. While she is internationally renowned for her vibrant, colorful works, Riley’s skilful approach to painting lies in the careful balancing of form and space; her expression is in the blank space as much as it is in the colour. Her desire to channel meaning through perception is achieved in this new addition to the exhibition, a distilled reflection of her abiding love of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters and their engagement with colour.
Remarking upon Riley’s generosity, Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, called Concerto I 2024 a “significant gift to the nation”. Having noted Riley’s career as one which pioneered the dynamic landscape of abstract art, Farquharson went on to praise the artist’s ongoing “commitment to exploring energy and sensation through colour and form”. Energy is a key feature of Riley’s work, and has been a consistent (but ever-changing) force throughout her expansive (and impressive) career.
The evocative black and white lines of Bridget Riley's painting 'Fall 1963'
The new display includes one of Riley’s most celebrated works, Fall 1963, which is an important early abstract painting in the Tate’s collection. Fall is being shown for the first time following its recent sustainable conservation treatment; this it received as part of GREENART, an international, multidisciplinary partnership of 30 institutions whose objective is to produce safe, environmentally friendly solutions for the remedial and preventive conservation of cultural heritage. Using only low-impact materials made entirely from renewable natural sources or recycled waste, GREENART’s mission of a cleaner earth builds on Riley’s description of this painting as “a field of visual energy, which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension”. The same could be said for the current difficulties facing our natural world. In a striking balance between black and white curves which run vertically down the hardboard, the painting evoques elation and disturbance in equal measure.
Riley's 1971 work, 'Elongated Triangles 5', is a demonstration of her early exploration of visual art.
Following Tate Britain’s full-gallery rehang in 2023, a regularly changing series of definitive displays has been made available for free public viewing. Concerto I is the newest addition to this collection, and can now be enjoyed by the as-yet uninitiated member of the public and the abstract-art devotee alike. As Farquharson commented, "I have no doubt it will soon become one of the best-loved works in the gallery".
