Sotheby’s has announced it will offer Chant 2, the most important painting by Bridget Riley (b.1931) ever to come to the auction market, in its Evening auction of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, 1st July 2008 in New Bond Street. Estimated at £2-3 million, Chant 2 is arguably the single most pivotal and groundbreaking work in the entire output of this much celebrated and highly regarded British artist. It was executed in 1967 and in the following year Riley triumphed at the 34th Venice Biennale, winning the International Prize for Painting, with a show that included this work. She was the first British artist ever to win the prize.

As her very first large-scale inception of colour, Chant 2 has appeared in most of Riley’s major retrospectives around the world. Its appearance at auction in July coincides with the opening weeks of a major retrospective of the artist’s work at the Musee d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (8th June – 28th September 2008). This follows its recent exhibition at the Neues Museum, Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nürnberg where it was on temporary loan.

Together with two other keynote works, Cataract 3 and Late Morning, Chant 2 was fundamental to Riley’s unprecedented success at the 34th Venice Biennale and it was this historic event that firmly established her reputation among the highest echelons of international contemporary art. Distinctly accountable for this success, Chant 2 is a significant masterwork and signposts a critical watershed in Bridget Riley’s phenomenal output

Auction info www.sothebys.com

Posted: 04|24|08 at 11:08 am. Filed under: UK News.