Mary Corse is a true pioneer who shaped the Southern California Light and Space Movement in the 1960s. She shared with contemporaries such as James Turrell and Robert Irwin a deep fascination with perception, and to that end pushed art making to its very extreme by embracing the notion light itself could serve as both subject and material of art.
In 1971, Corse was awarded the Theodoron Award by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and her work Untitled (Light Painting) from the same year entered their permanent collection. Four years later, in 1975, she received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and in the early 1980s both The Menil Collection in Houston and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art acquired her work.
Yet, for much of her nearly six-decade career, Corse worked largely without the acclaim granted to her male peers. As she has recalled, "for years, I was not accepted at all" (Mary Corse, quoted in Hilarie M. Sheets, "Interview, Mary Corse", The Art Newspaper, May 4, 2018, online). It has only been in recent years that Corse's singular career is finally receiving its long overdue examination and recognition.
The Momentum
2011
Corse's work is included in the seminal exhibition Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A., Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and Surface, Support, Process: The 1960s Monochrome in the Guggenheim Collection at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
2012
Corse is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York.
2016
The Whitney Museum of American Art acquires Untitled (Two Triangular Columns), 1965.
Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, announces its primary representation of Corse.
2017
The Dia Art Foundation introduces Corse to their permanent collection, acquiring Untitled (White Light L-Corners), 1969, Untitled (White Light Square Corners), 1970, Untitled (Black Earth Series), 1978, and Untitled (White Inner Band), 2010. Corse joins Lisson Gallery, London.
2018
In May, Dia:Beacon presents its long-term installation of Corse's work in Beacon, New York, cementing her status alongside such peers as Dan Flavin and Robert Irwin. The installation will be on view until 2021.
"It [Dia:Beacon] is a perfect environment in which to truly appreciate the work of Mary Corse, an artist who has considered the effects of light on abstract painting in groundbreaking ways.”
Jessica Morgan, Nathalie de Gunzburg Director, Dia Art Foundation
In June, The Whitney Museum of American Art presents Mary Corse’s first solo museum exhibition Mary Corse: A Survey in Light. Pace Gallery announces representation of Corse in Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul and New York.
"For much of her more than five-decade career, the painter Mary Corse was largely overlooked. But with three new shows this season she’s become hard to miss."
The Wall Street Journal, April 2018
2019
Mary Corse: A Survey in Light travels to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
2020
Corse's work is included in Figures on a Ground, Perspectives on Minimal Art at the Fondation CAB in Brussels through December 2020.