Untitled
Artist
Mary Corse
(American, born 1945)
Date1986
MediumOil on canvas with glass micro beads
Dimensions78 × 102 in. (198.1 × 259.1 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Jerome and Irene Barr
Object number2002.4.1
Label TextMary Corse (b. 1945) created her first light structures in 1966, initiating a career-long exploration into the properties and effects of light. Two years later, in 1968 she began to integrate glass microspheres into her paintings. Suspended in acrylic pigment, these minute prisms are the source of an ephemeral, internal radiance that has since become one of the most striking and unique aspects of her work. The surfaces of her viewer-activated, dynamic paintings shift dramatically with one's position in relation to the canvas. They are affected by subtle alterations of light, transforming themselves according to the strength and direction of the sources in a space. This almost scientific fascination with light, as well as the exploration of ethereal qualities, stems from Corse's early interest in physics and philosophy. She does not focus on absolute perceptions but investigates instead an abstract idiom of the light refracted by her paintings, a fluctuating reality that appears and disappears.
Mary Corse is a member of the vital group of Southern California artists that emerged in the mid-1960s with the Light and Space Movement, which included artists such as James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Douglas Wheeler. The movement was characterized by examinations of perceptual issues relating primarily to light, atmosphere, and environmental factors.
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