Turner Contemporary presents Learning to See, a major new exhibition by Bridget Riley. The exhibition’s name is taken from a letter by Claude Monet to his friend Eugène Boudin, in which Monet thanks Boudin “for being the first to teach him ‘to see and understand’.” Riley, whose work has always probed the nature of perception and visual sensation, found in this phrase a fitting spirit for her retrospective.

Rather than offering a strictly chronological retrospective, the exhibition blends together early works from the 1960s, recent canvases, and large-scale wall paintings from the past decade. What unites them is Riley’s lifelong fascination with the sensory experience of sight – how colour, form, and rhythm can evoke motion, space, and emotion. Notably, Learning to See also brings out preparatory works on paper – drawings that show how central the act of drawing has been to Riley’s practice through her life.

“The unusual deployment of the galleries gives us the chance to see things differently.”
Bridget Riley

The exhibition runs until 4 May 2026, with tickets available via the Turner Contemporary website.