In 2016, Bridget Riley began a series of disc paintings titled ‘Measure for Measure’. The title apparently alludes to William Shakespeare’s play of that name, and the significance of this reference is unclear. Small, experimental studies made with acrylic on polyester were followed by large acrylic paintings on linen and even larger wall paintings. The series is defined by monochrome discs of the same three muted colours: green, orange, and violet. In each work the discs are of uniform size, and Measure for Measure 27 has discs that measure just under eight centimetres in diameter. In all cases the discs are bordered by a margin of untouched white space. Within the series, variety is achieved by the differing placement of colours and no two works have the same arrangement. The discs are almost always positioned to create a diagonal grid pattern, although two large wall paintings [BR 620, 637] explode the grid and instead group discs in units of one and three to suggest a partial lozenge pattern. As with all of Riley’s work, the patterns of Measure for Measure induce a state of self-aware perception in the viewer and one traces diagonal sequences of dots in a single colour, before the colour changes and one traces a new colour in a different direction. Notwithstanding these localised patterns, the grid structure is cohesive and registers as a single integrated form. Describing the Measure for Measure series, the art historian Robert Kudielka who edited the catalogue of Riley’s complete paintings wrote that the ‘cross-currents of colour sequences […] engage the viewer in an open, but ordered movement. They play with our sight in an unpredictable and joyful manner.’

The development of the Measure for Measure series was encouraged by a commission that Riley received from Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, New Zealand, in 2016. ‘The studies for the Measure to Measure paintings were in development in Riley’s studio’, Kudielka wrote, ‘and in a way the request for a large wall work pushed their progress ahead.’ The result of the request was a wall painting that measures over four metres wide, Cosmos [BR 615], which title suggests ‘a field within which a certain order appears to be hidden.’

Writing in 2017, Éric de Chassey situated the Measure for Measure series in the context of Riley’s long history of using discs and dots. He began with a description of Riley’s copy from Georges Seurat’s painting The Bridge at Courbevoie, which she made in 1958. Seurat’s pointilliste paintings have been a lifelong fascination of Riley’s, and his divisionist technique, in which the picture is constructed from small points of contrasting colour, is a precursor to her abstract paintings which subvert and delight binocular vision by complex arrangements of elementary formal units. ‘Suffice to say’, wrote de Chassey, ‘that the Disc Paintings renew her dialogue with Seurat’s methods while departing from his results and appearance.’

As de Chassey explained, Measure for Measure has only slight precedents in Riley’s oeuvre. On the occasions that she has used discs, they have tended to be open circles or ovals:

"Riley has used discs since the early 1960s—as one shape amongst the many she had at her disposal […]. But they disappeared from her paintings on canvas in 1967 (after Deny 2). Except in some studies on paper from 1970–71 (the Circles Colour Structure Studies […]), which never made it into a fully realised painting, and a small, exceptional series of paintings of 2011 […], they were always colourless—at most variations from black to white, through a diversity of greys. In most cases, they were actually not discs, but circles or ovals […]."

He went on to assert the distinctiveness of the Measure for Measure disc paintings, which create and sustain the tension between individual units and the entirety of the composition. ‘The Measure for Measure series, as well as the wall painting Cosmos in Christchurch Art Gallery, are proof that Riley is now able, through careful and intuitive placement of each greyed colour in an extremely regular composition made of identical shapes, to work with separate forms that never relinquish their identity while never destroying the unity of the whole.’

The artist’s own inscription identifies Measure for Measure 27 as catalogue number P1816 in Riley’s records. It is painted on an absorbent linen support lightly primed with white; although the linen is finely woven, its texture is still visible upon close inspection. The work was first handled by Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris, which dealer began to exhibit Riley’s work in Berlin in 2007. In 2017, Hetzler’s Paris gallery held a solo exhibition of her ‘new disc paintings’ (18 October to 25 November), which consisted of works from the Measure to Measure series.