Paul Moorhouse is an art historian and curator. He was Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London (2005–17) and Senior Curator at Tate, London (1985–2005), where he curated a major Bridget Riley retrospective exhibition in 2003. Recent books include Cindy Sherman (2014), Bridget Riley: From Life (2010), the award-winning Gerhard Richter: Painting Appearances (2009), Pop Art Portraits (2007) and Richard Long: Walking the Line (2003).Bridget Riley was born in 1931 in London, UK, and studied at Goldsmiths College (1949–52) and Royal College of Art, London (1952–55). She initially came to prominence as part of the Op art movement in the early 1960s and has been exhibiting internationally since 1962. She has had notable solo at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Serpentine Gallery, London, and Tate Britain, London. Riley was made a CBE in 1974, appointed the Companion of Honour in 1999, and received the Kaiser Ring of the City of Goslar in 2003. She currently lives and works in London.

An exceptionally informative and deftly crafted biography of an impressive woman and her equally impressive artistic accomplishments, "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person: The Early Years" features a center section of illustrations and is an extraordinary and engaging read from beginning to end.--Julie Summers "Midwest Book Review " In "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person--The Early Years," Paul Moorhouse, a former senior curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, doesn't attempt a full-scale biography but instead homes in on the period between the artist's childhood and her earliest success, and makes a surprising but compelling case for the influence of landscape on Ms. Riley's distinctive style.--Ann Landi "Wall Street Journal " As Paul Moorhouse shows in this thorough and sensitive first biography, which concentrates on her early years up to the age of thirty-four, it was only after many false starts, bracing shocks and firm decisions that Riley found her way as an abstract painter in the early 1960s with her eye-dazzling lines, squares, curves, ovals, circles, stripes and zigzags in ultra-hard-edged black-and-white.--Jerome Boyd Maunsell "Times Literary Supplement " [A Very Very Person] is an entertaining and informative text that adds greatly to our understanding of a very prominent and still highly intriguing British artist.--Hyperallergic

• Preface 91 Ancestral landscape 152 A very very person 273 Unearthly beauty 364 Leaving Trevemadar 455 First steps 526 Great promise 597 The fledgling 728 To Goldsmiths 789 Looking and drawing 8510 The bargain not kept 9611 Paradise and disaster 10512 Crisis 11513 Recovery 12514 Developing process 16815 A visual education 17816 Looking becomes the subject 18417 Italy 19318 Into black 20319 Movement in Squares 21320 Gallery One 22121 New horizons 22922 Saint Elmo’s fire 23623 Acclaim 248Notes 260Index 264Photographic Credits 269

Paul Moorhouse is an art historian and curator. He was Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London (2005–17) and Senior Curator at Tate, London (1985–2005), where he curated a major Bridget Riley retrospective exhibition in 2003. Recent books include Cindy Sherman (2014), Bridget Riley: From Life (2010), the award-winning Gerhard Richter: Painting Appearances (2009), Pop Art Portraits (2007) and Richard Long: Walking the Line (2003).Bridget Riley was born in 1931 in London, UK, and studied at Goldsmiths College (1949–52) and Royal College of Art, London (1952–55). She initially came to prominence as part of the Op art movement in the early 1960s and has been exhibiting internationally since 1962. She has had notable solo at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Serpentine Gallery, London, and Tate Britain, London. Riley was made a CBE in 1974, appointed the Companion of Honour in 1999, and received the Kaiser Ring of the City of Goslar in 2003. She currently lives and works in London.

An exceptionally informative and deftly crafted biography of an impressive woman and her equally impressive artistic accomplishments, "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person: The Early Years" features a center section of illustrations and is an extraordinary and engaging read from beginning to end.--Julie Summers "Midwest Book Review " In "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person--The Early Years," Paul Moorhouse, a former senior curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, doesn't attempt a full-scale biography but instead homes in on the period between the artist's childhood and her earliest success, and makes a surprising but compelling case for the influence of landscape on Ms. Riley's distinctive style.--Ann Landi "Wall Street Journal " As Paul Moorhouse shows in this thorough and sensitive first biography, which concentrates on her early years up to the age of thirty-four, it was only after many false starts, bracing shocks and firm decisions that Riley found her way as an abstract painter in the early 1960s with her eye-dazzling lines, squares, curves, ovals, circles, stripes and zigzags in ultra-hard-edged black-and-white.--Jerome Boyd Maunsell "Times Literary Supplement " [A Very Very Person] is an entertaining and informative text that adds greatly to our understanding of a very prominent and still highly intriguing British artist.--Hyperallergic

• Preface 91 Ancestral landscape 152 A very very person 273 Unearthly beauty 364 Leaving Trevemadar 455 First steps 526 Great promise 597 The fledgling 728 To Goldsmiths 789 Looking and drawing 8510 The bargain not kept 9611 Paradise and disaster 10512 Crisis 11513 Recovery 12514 Developing process 16815 A visual education 17816 Looking becomes the subject 18417 Italy 19318 Into black 20319 Movement in Squares 21320 Gallery One 22121 New horizons 22922 Saint Elmo’s fire 23623 Acclaim 248Notes 260Index 264Photographic Credits 269

Paul Moorhouse is an art historian and curator. He was Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London (2005–17) and Senior Curator at Tate, London (1985–2005), where he curated a major Bridget Riley retrospective exhibition in 2003. Recent books include Cindy Sherman (2014), Bridget Riley: From Life (2010), the award-winning Gerhard Richter: Painting Appearances (2009), Pop Art Portraits (2007) and Richard Long: Walking the Line (2003).Bridget Riley was born in 1931 in London, UK, and studied at Goldsmiths College (1949–52) and Royal College of Art, London (1952–55). She initially came to prominence as part of the Op art movement in the early 1960s and has been exhibiting internationally since 1962. She has had notable solo at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Serpentine Gallery, London, and Tate Britain, London. Riley was made a CBE in 1974, appointed the Companion of Honour in 1999, and received the Kaiser Ring of the City of Goslar in 2003. She currently lives and works in London.

An exceptionally informative and deftly crafted biography of an impressive woman and her equally impressive artistic accomplishments, "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person: The Early Years" features a center section of illustrations and is an extraordinary and engaging read from beginning to end.--Julie Summers "Midwest Book Review " In "Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person--The Early Years," Paul Moorhouse, a former senior curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, doesn't attempt a full-scale biography but instead homes in on the period between the artist's childhood and her earliest success, and makes a surprising but compelling case for the influence of landscape on Ms. Riley's distinctive style.--Ann Landi "Wall Street Journal " As Paul Moorhouse shows in this thorough and sensitive first biography, which concentrates on her early years up to the age of thirty-four, it was only after many false starts, bracing shocks and firm decisions that Riley found her way as an abstract painter in the early 1960s with her eye-dazzling lines, squares, curves, ovals, circles, stripes and zigzags in ultra-hard-edged black-and-white.--Jerome Boyd Maunsell "Times Literary Supplement " [A Very Very Person] is an entertaining and informative text that adds greatly to our understanding of a very prominent and still highly intriguing British artist.--Hyperallergic

• Preface 91 Ancestral landscape 152 A very very person 273 Unearthly beauty 364 Leaving Trevemadar 455 First steps 526 Great promise 597 The fledgling 728 To Goldsmiths 789 Looking and drawing 8510 The bargain not kept 9611 Paradise and disaster 10512 Crisis 11513 Recovery 12514 Developing process 16815 A visual education 17816 Looking becomes the subject 18417 Italy 19318 Into black 20319 Movement in Squares 21320 Gallery One 22121 New horizons 22922 Saint Elmo’s fire 23623 Acclaim 248Notes 260Index 264Photographic Credits 269