- Artist or Maker
- Mary Corse
United States, California, Berkeley, active Los Angeles, born 1945 - Title
- Untitled (White Arch Inner Band Series)
- Date Made
- 1996
- Medium
- Glass microspheres and acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions
- 96 1/2 x 96 x 2 3/8 in. (245.11 x 243.84 x 6.03 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2007.99
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
Mary Corse is best known for her all-white abstract paintings whose reflective surfaces play with the viewers perception of light. In the late 1960s, Corse began incorporating glass microspheres (like those used in reflective road signs) into her paintings; the microspheres refracted light and made for a luminous surface on her canvases. Corse produced her first arch painting in the late 1980s.
In these monochromatic compositions, forms are defined by subtle distinctions of the reflectivity and refractivity of Corse's media. Corse generally creates works in a series, exploring particular issues of form and perception. Untitled(1996) is from Corse's White Arch Inner Band series, in which a rectilinear arch frames a banded interior. The differences among the three bands and the arch itself are extremely nuanced and can be detected only as the viewer moves in relation to the painting.There is no "steady state" or optimal view for Untitled; rather, it exists as an ever-changing perceptual experience in which the viewer is an active participant.
- Selected Bibliography
- Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.
