Mary Corse: A Survey
in Light
LACMA
Through November 11th
Article by Cathy Breslaw
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Mary Corse Untitled (White Light Series)1966 fluorescent light, plexiglass, and acrylic on wood Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, NY gift, Michael Strauss 2016 photograph Mary Corse
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Some art slaps you in the face with its boldness, shocking
content or sheer massive size. Not so
for the work of Mary Corse whose first solo museum exhibition A Survey of Light is on view at Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. Art viewers who typically pull out their phone
cameras to capture images or themselves with the art need not waste their time
in this activity. Corse’s art is about the direct ‘experience’ and cameras will
only get in the way.
Corse has dedicated over 5 decades to her art practice to
the focused study of light as both subject and material, as well as delving
into the physical and metaphysical properties of light as energy and
perception. In the 1960’s Corse’s technical experimentations of shaped
monochrome canvases like Untitled (Octogonal
Blue) 1964 and sculpture of acrylic on wood and plexiglass Untitled (Two Triangular Columns) 1965, are
examples of her early work that reflect the influence of minimalism going on
during in those years. Her work is also often associated with the West Coast
Light and Space Movement.
During the 1960’s Corse engineered her first light box
paintings, as painted white canvases transitioned into radiant fluorescent
light. She later developed a series of
argon light boxes that were wireless and suspended from the ceiling using Tesla
coils and high frequency generators that can transit an electromagnetic field
through a wall. And, in order to create these works, Corse took physics classes
and had to pass a proficiency test to acquire certain capacitors and wires for
these pieces.
Corse’s White Light series
came from her discovery of the tiny glass microspheres embedded in road paint which she continues to use to create these
light responsive works. Reflecting and refracting light, these tiny beads allow
the viewer to notice and experience changes in the surface light of these
paintings while moving across in front
of them, and viewing them from varying angles and distances. Subtle grid
patterns and vertical/horizontal bands form the underlying composition within
which the viewer notices changing patterns of shimmering light and the feeling
of energy emanating from them.
Corse has pushed light’s formal and perceptual
possibilities, while working in increasingly larger sized canvases, and
sometimes incorporating black . There appears to be an inner glow and
luminosity to these white monochrome paintings as well as an intriguing
interactive quality as viewers participate in the experience by moving around the
large and airy spaces of the gallery rooms. There are no singular vantage points from
which to observe these paintings, making it an active and highly subjective and
fun experience of discovery.
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| Installation photograph, Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, July 28 - November 11 2019, art Mary Corse, photo Museum Associates/LACMA |
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| Installation photograph, Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, July 28 - November 11 2019, art Mary Corse, photo Museum Associates/LACMA |
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Mary Corse Untitled(White Inner Band), 2003 glass microspheres and acrylic on canvas, 96" x 240" Private Collection, Mary Corse photograph by Flying Studio
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