Between the Two (2005) by Bridget Riley packs a wide horizontal rectangle with diagonal bands in emerald, coral, sky blue, periwinkle and salmon, the forms interlocking across the full extent of the composition with a density that distinguishes it from the more open Lozenge works of the same period. No white ground intervenes — the colours press directly against one another from edge to edge, and the effect is correspondingly more intense, the warm and cool tones trading position in a continuous exchange that gives the image a richness and complexity that rewards extended looking.

The five colours are chosen with the precision that characterises everything Riley made — not for harmony or decorative effect but for the specific behaviour each produces in relation to its neighbours. The coral and emerald generate the most active boundaries wherever they meet, the complementary tension between them sharper than any other pairing in the composition. The periwinkle functions as a moderating presence, its coolness neither as recessive as the sky blue nor as warm as the salmon, sitting between the extremes and giving the field a middle register that prevents the image from tipping into pure opposition. It is a five-part colour relationship managed with the rigour of a composer working across five instruments simultaneously — each voice distinct, each one changing the character of the whole.

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