S ometimes a smaller exhibition is more effective than a full-blown survey. Bridget Riley: Learning to See at Margate’s Turner Contemporary brings us an invigorating and magical ensemble, juxtaposing 26 works from the 1960s to the present and shuttling between large canvases, studies and works painted directly on the wall. Learning to See concentrates the mind and sharpens the eye.

Riley’s paintings come at you all at once. They arrest you and they still you. The longer you look, the more they reveal and the more they seem to change. As they ensnare you, the more rewarding they become. “How does she do that?” , might be a first thought. How are the colours ordered, what’s the logic of their construction? But there’re also the things they do to your nervous system, in that unknowable

See Full Page