The Painting That Set Bridget Riley's Auction Record (Twice)
3 min read · 30 Jan 2025
UNTITLED (DIAGONAL CURVE). Image courtesy of Christie's
Bridget Riley's Untitled (Diagonal Curve) (1966) sold for $5.81m (£4.34m) at Christie's in London on June 30, 2016. The synthetic emulsion on board work had been traded 5 times in the past.
The painting has been described as one of Riley's last, grand-scale paintings in a group of "curve" paintings that first made her name on both sides of the Atlantic. Her debut solo show in New York in 1965 was a sell-out. Almost overnight she became the poster girl of Op art, a label she disliked.
After 1967, Riley would move away from monochrome and introduced color into her vibrant, abstract compositions.
Untitled (Diagonal Curve) (1966) has the distinction of being featured in Riley's retrospectives at London's Hayward Gallery in 1971, her first big solo show in Britain, and her late-career survey in 2020, among other museum shows. It had previously set the artist's auction record in 2006, when it sold for $2.19m.
Riley's painting was due to be sold at Sotheby's, amid a rising interest in the veteran artist's work, but it was withdrawn from the contemporary evening auction, held on October 20, 2020.
In 2022, Riley's 1974 painting Gala narrowly missed setting an auction record for the artist when it sold for $5.74m (£4.36m) at Christie's London in its March 22 "Modern British and Irish Art" sale.
Chant 2. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
The 2016 sale beat Riley's previous auction record by $710,800, a 13% rise. The previous record was set by Chant 2 (1967), which sold for $5.1m at Sotheby's on July 1, 2008. The work had been traded twice in the past.
A Brief History of Bridget Riley at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016-06-30 | UNTITLED (DIAGONAL CURVE) | $5.81m | 14 % | Christie's | London |
2008-07-01 | Chant 2 | $5.1m | 76 % | Sotheby's | London |
2008-02-06 | Static 2 | $2.89m | 32 % | Christie's | London |
2006-06-21 | UNTITLED (DIAGONAL CURVE) | $2.19m | 206 % | Sotheby's | London |
2006-02-09 | Persephone 1 | $713,800 | 2 % | Sotheby's | London |
2004-05-13 | Serif | $700,000 | 152 % | Phillips de Pury | New York |
2003-02-06 | Orient 3 | $278,000 | 100 % | Sotheby's | London |
2001-02-07 | Blue shot | $139,100 | 2 % | Sotheby's | London |
2000-10-26 | Tambourine | $136,100 | 31 % | Sotheby's | London |
1998-04-22 | Twist | $103,800 | 22 % | Christie's | London |
1989-11-08 | Drift 1 | $85,000 | 99 % | Christie's | New York |
1989-07-29 | Arrest I | $42,800 | 53 % | Bonhams | London |
1988-11-10 | Turn | $28,000 | - | Christie's | New York |
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