Bridget Riley review – pounding psychedelic art that will make you see the world differently

Courtauld Gallery, London
Britain’s most revolutionary painter joins the dots between Georges Seurat’s pointillist paintings and her own utopian explosions of joy in an exhibition of pure genius

Looking from Bridget Riley’s mind-boggling 1960s paintings to Georges Seurat’s calm river scene in The Bridge at Courbevoie, painted in 1886-7, is not only thought-provoking but puts your eyes to the test. After looking at her pounding psychedelic art, I could barely see the Seurat. I had to let my eyes readjust before I could properly make out its misfits and fishermen on the banks of the Seine, let alone appreciate the play of tiny dots that creates its pointillist shimmer.

Riley is the most revolutionary British painter of modern times. Her paintings don’t merely hang on the wall: they warp and pulsate, sucking your imagination into unreal worlds of impossible depth and hallucinatory colour. What was she on when she came up with her dangerous vision?

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