Bridget Riley is bringing the colors of historical Egypt to Rome with a significant ceiling portray fee

The UK artist Bridget Riley, 91, will unveil her first ceiling portray in Rome this spring. The work, made utilizing the artist’s so-called Egyptian palette, will cowl the 4 barrel vaults of the ceiling on the British College at Rome. Riley offers a glimpse of the work in a picture exhibiting her design for the huge overhead canvas, mimicking Renaissance masters comparable to Caravaggio.

Riley has mentioned the Egyptian palette, saying: “The traditional Egyptians had a hard and fast palette. They used the identical colors—turquoise, blue, purple, yellow, inexperienced, black and white—for over 3,000 years. In every utilization these colors appeared completely different however on the similar time they united the looks of the complete tradition.”

The artist provides in a press release: “I wish to thank the British College at Rome for its invitation to color the vaulting barrels of Edwin Lutyens’s lovely ceiling. It was the start of an exhilarating visible chase. Exhilarating however not with out hazard… I pursued this perceptual journey and performed my ‘color acoustics’ with nice delight. Wanting up, the color of the skies gives a glimpse of nature in her most promising and serene temper.”

The British College, situated subsequent to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, was established in 1901 and is housed in a neoclassical constructing designed by Lutyens for a 1911 exhibition marking the fiftieth anniversary of Italy (the occasion attracted greater than 7 million guests). Alumni of the British College embody Cornelia Parker and Mark Wallinger; artists who’ve taken up residency on the British College embody Eddie Peake, Elizabeth Value and Laure Prouvost.

Presently, a travelling exhibition that includes greater than 90 of her works on paper reveals Riley’s evolution in line, tone and color.