Bexhill

[poliphilo]

We went to Bexhill for the Bridget Riley exhibition at the de la Warr Pavilion. Riley's early op-art paintings- in black and white and shades of grey- shimmer and convulse and seem on the point of dematerialisation. Then she introduced colour and the work becomes increasingly static. Her latest things are perfectly nice but rather old-fashioned exercises in pure abstraction- reminiscent of late Matisse. She won't be the first artist to hit on something rather wonderful in her youth and then have nowhere to go but backwards.

We had lunch at Di Paulo's cafe where they sell their own homemade ice cream. The Di Paulo's are a branch of the Di Marco family that opened its first ice cream parlour in Hastings in 1905.

We'd not been to Bexhill before in holiday weather. It's lovely.