Mary Corse (b. 1945) is a pioneer of the 1960s Light and Space movement in Southern California. Her practice centers on White Light paintings made with glass microspheres—tiny industrial beads mixed with acrylic paint that refract light and create the illusion of luminosity radiating from within the canvas. Prompted by her studies of quantum physics in the late 1960s, Corse developed this technique after observing the shifting luminosity of street signs and highway lines on the Pacific Coast Highway at night.
Each painting is composed of precise geometric proportions, often featuring vertical or horizontal bands that activate the viewer's physical stance and perception. Corse deliberately leaves visible brushstrokes on the surface, emphasizing the labor and systemic application required. Her works oscillate between appearing flat and emitting ethereal light, with stripes seemingly appearing and disappearing as one moves through space. Over five decades of experimentation, Corse has proven her unrivaled exploration into abstraction and human perception, challenging worldviews based on external fixity and honoring subjective, embodied experience.
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