During the preparatory work for a painting, I may make images which are tangential to the problems posed by the particular painting. Some of these images I return to and develop later, others remain as fragments of a theme.
Bridget Riley, artist’s statement in Fragments catalogue, Robert Fraser Gallery, London, 1965


'Although the prints of the Fragments suite are related to paintings done between 1962 and 1965, they have a distinct character of their own, which is formed by the way in which Bridget Riley has turned the limitations of the medium to advantage.'

'Technically the Fragments group were an innovation: the first edition of silk-screen prints on plexi-glass ever made. Like many artists in the early sixties, Bridget Riley was interested in exploring new materials. In search of a pristine ground she decided to print the white on to a clear plastic which, incidentally, gave more body to the work as well.'
Robert Kudielka ‘Introduction’ to Working Methods 4: Bridget Riley: Silkscreen prints 1965-78, Arts Council of Great Britain, London 1980


'The Kelpra studio, despite its considerable technical expertise, did not know how to handle the unfamiliar material (plexiglass). The work had to be sent out to a commercial sign printer experienced in working with plastic, for the printing was to be done directly on the back of the plastic sheet. The black colour was laid first, then the white ground added: the completed image was immediately visible through the transparent material. There was no need for the prints to be covered with glass, which had attracted Riley to experiment with the material in the first place. Her intuition proved sound: the transparency of the plexiglass seems to give the prints a new sort of life, a perfect marriage of image and support. Hovering somewhere between painting and sculpture, the Fragments seem to have floated in from another world, where visual sensations can become entities in themselves. Perfectly realised, they still look as if they had been finished yesterday, dazzling in their composure and completeness.'
Lynn MacRitchie, ‘Bridget Riley Prints’ in Bridget Riley : Complete Prints 1962-2001, London, 2001

'The title ‘Fragments’ is significant in that most of the prints consist of images which the artist arrived at through making studies for paintings. (She was at this period working almost exclusively in black and white). In selecting perspex as the ground Riley was clearly interested in setting a dense black image upon an intensely white and brilliant surface.

‘White Discs I’ 1964 is explicitly the model for Fragment 6. Both the paintings ‘White Discs I’ and ‘White Discs II’ 1964 and the print Fragment 6, because of the black discs, cause after-images to appear like ‘luminous explosions’ on the white surface. The three sizes of discs have been carefully chosen to generate different weights of after-image.

This suite was published by the Robert Fraser Gallery and printed at the Kelpra Studio in an edition of 75.'
The Tate Gallery Report 1970–1972, London 1972.