After receiving early acclaim in the 1960s for works ranging from shaped-canvas paintings to argon lightboxes, Mary Corse has dedicated the succeeding decades to establishing a unique painting practice at the crossroads of Abstract Expressionism and American Minimalism.
Corse’s highly refined vocabulary synergizes traits normally thought to be irreconcilable: gestural brushstrokes reminiscent of early influences like Willem de Kooning and Hans Hofmann; precise geometric compositions, most often featuring the vertical band; and a palette rigorously reduced to white, black, and the primary colors.
Yet these characteristics take on an exceptional quality through Corse’s innovative handling of materials that both capture and refract light, ensuring that our perceptions of her paintings change as the lighting shifts or we move about the space. These techniques enable Corse to create a dynamic interplay between her paintings and the viewer.
From one viewing position, a single Corse painting may appear to be a monochromatic, matte-finish canvas, executed with a degree of precision that suggests industrial fabrication. But from a slightly different viewing position, the same piece may abruptly shift, revealing a composition of various bands in subtly different shades, a glittering texture that radiates light, and visible brushstrokes showing the artist’s hand. Through this visual push and pull, Corse makes the inherent abstractness of human perception felt instead of merely seen.
Mary Corse was born in Berkeley in 1945 and earned her B.F.A. from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968. She has shown extensively in the US and abroad in the decades since. In 2021, Mary Corse: Painting with Light, Corse’s first solo museum survey in Asia, premiered at the Long Museum, Shanghai, China, later traveling to Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea. In 2018, Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, Corse’s first U.S. solo museum survey, opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art and in 2019 traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A three-year solo exhibition at Dia:Beacon opened in 2018. Her work has been included in the exhibitions Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and later traveling to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany and Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.
Corse’s works reside in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Long Museum, Shanghai, China; and the Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea among many others. She is a past recipient of the Guggenheim’s Theodoron Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Cartier Foundation Award. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Born 1945 in Berkeley, CA. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
EDUCATION
1968
B.F.A., Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022
Mary Corse, Pace Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (Forthcoming)
Portals, Lisson Gallery, London, UK (Forthcoming)
Sound as Sculpture, curated by Thomas Feulmer, The Warehouse, Dallas, TX
Inaspettatamente, Cloud Seven, Brussels, Belgium
2021
Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
Light & Space, Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
Mary Corse, Pace Palo Alto, CA
Mary Corse: Painting with Light, Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Mary Corse: Painting with Light, Long Museum, Shanghai, China
Break + Bleed, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Mary Corse, Pace Palm Beach, FL
Pure Form, David Zwirner, New York, NY
2020
Mary Corse: Variations, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
City of Tomorrow: Jinny Wright and the Art That Shaped a New Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, WA
Sculpture, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Figures on a Ground, Fondation CAB, Brussels, Belgium
Painting, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
2019
At the Edge of Things: Baer, Corse, Martin, Pace Gallery, London, UK; Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Mary Corse: Recent Paintings, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (cat.)
Mary Corse, Pace Gallery, Hong Kong
At the Edge of Things: Baer, Corse, Martin, Pace Gallery, London, UK
Experimental Painting in the 1970s and now, Lisson Gallery, New York
Living in a Lightbulb, curated by Jenny Jaskey and Mia Locks, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (cat.)
Mary Corse, Dia: Beacon, Beacon, NY
Mary Corse, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime, curated by Joel Sternfeld, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
2017
Art and Space, Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Then and Now, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Deadeye Dick: Richard Bellamy and His Circle, Peter Freeman, Inc, New York, NY
Mary Corse, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
California Dreaming: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Malibu, CA
Abstraction: Stories Told in Shape, Color, and Form, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Plastic Show, Almine Rech Gallery, London, UK
2016
Material Considerations, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime, curated by Joel Sternfeld, Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont
Radical Materiality, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong
2015
Light and Space, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Mary Corse, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
Elemental: Seeing the Light, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge, CA
Paths and Edges: Celebrating the Five-Year Anniversary of the Escalatte Collection, Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University, Orange, CA (cat.)
Geometric Obsession: American School 1965-2015, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina (cat.)
2014
Reductive Minimalism, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
2013
Mary Corse, Teresita Fernández, Maya Lin, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
Set Pieces, Cardi Black Box, Milan, Italy
Nine from L.A., Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, WA
2012
Current Paintings, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
New Work, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
Polarized Space: Corse, McCracken, McLaughlin, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
I Followed You Into the Water, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
2011
Surface, Support, Process: The 1960s Monochrome in the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Inside the White Cube, White Cube Gallery, Bermondsey, London, UK (cat.)
Phenomenal: California Light and Space, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA (cat.)
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting And Sculpture, 1950-1970, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Venice in Venice, Collateral Exhibition in Association with the J. Paul Getty Museum, 54th Venice Biennale, Italy
What’s New, Pussycat?, curated by Tim Nye and Max Presneill, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA (cat.)
Color Field Paintings and Related Abstractions Revisited, Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, WA
New Out West – Peter Alexander, Mary Corse, Robert Irwin, Quint Contemporary, San Diego, CA
Mary Corse: Recent Paintings, Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
2010
Bing’s Choice, Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, WA
2009
Collection: MOCA’s First 30 Years, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Primary Forms-Annenberg Foundation Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA
Mary Corse, Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
2008
So Cal: Southern California Art of the 1960s and 70s from LACMA's Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Mary Corse: Paintings, Light Paintings, Sculpture and Graphics from the Sixties, Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, Organized by Independent Curators International, New York, NY (cat.)
2004
Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (cat.)
2003
The Spirit of White, Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland (cat.)
Mary Corse, Ace Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
3 Degrees of Cool, Wright Exhibitions Space, Seattle, WA
2001
Mary Corse, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
California Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation: 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
2000
Mary Corse, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Mary Corse: New Paintings, Ameringer/Howard Fine Art, Boca Raton, FL
1999
Powder, Curated by Julia Graham and Maria Friedrich, Aspen Art Museum, CO (cat.)
Southern California Art: 1969-1974, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Material Issues: Recent Gifts from the Collection of Katherine and James Gentry, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Mary Corse, Ochi Fine Art, Ketchum, ID
1998
Mary Corse: Recent Painting, Ochi Fine Art, Ketchum, ID
Thinking about Old Friends: An Exhibition of Paintings Dedicated to Richard Bellamy, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
1997
Permanent Collection Installation, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
Mary Corse, Chac Mool Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
Elusive Paradise: Los Angeles Art from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1996
Mary Corse, Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Color Fields: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1995
Mary Corse: Survey 1964 – 1994, Ace Gallery, New York, NY
Abstraction from Two Coasts, Lawing Gallery, Houston, TX (cat.)
Images of an Era: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1994
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Plane/Structures, Otis Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
Mary Corse: Survey 1964 – 1994, Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
1993
Let's Get Physical: Physical Abstraction from L.A., Blum-Helman Gallery, New York, NY
1992
The New Physical Abstraction in Los Angeles, Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
1991
California Window, Part II, Memory’s Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
1990
Physical Abstraction/Painting 1990, Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Minimal 1960-90, Los Angeles, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
13 Los Angeles Painters, Sena Galleries West, Santa Fe, NM
Perceptual Investigations: Light and Space Works in the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1989
Constructing a History: A Focus on MOCA’s Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
1988
Permanent Collection Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Selections from the Permanent Collection I, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Visual Silences, Marc Richards Gallery, Los Angeles
One of a Kind: Contemporary Serial Imagery, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1987
Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Mary Corse, Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Highlights of California Art since 1945: A Collecting Partnership, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
1986
Mary Corse, Flow Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1985
Nine Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Imagine There’s a Future: A Celebration of Life, organized by Hollywood Women’s Coalition in association with the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race, Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles, CA
1983
New Acquisitions: The Menil Collection, Rice University Museum, Houston, TX
Young Talent Awards: 1963-1983, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1981
Mary Corse, The Clocktower, New York, NY
Decade: Los Angeles Painting in the Seventies, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
1980
In the Constructivist Spirit, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Group Show: Summer Exhibition Part I, L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, CA
Janus in San Diego, University Art Galleries, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
1979
Earth Paintings, Janus Gallery, Venice, CA
1978
Exploration in Drawing, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Figure and Form 1960-70: Selections from the Michener Collection, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
1976
The Liberation: Fourteen American Artists, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Many Arts of Science, Baxter Art Gallery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
1975
Mary Corse, Richard Bellamy Gallery, New York, NY
1974
Group Exhibition, Richard Bellamy Gallery, New York, NY
LA Six, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1973
Art & Things: Painting in the 60s, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
1972
Fifteen Los Angeles Artists, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
Twelve Statements Beyond the 60s, Detroit Institute of the Arts, MI
Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Burton G. Tremaine, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Mary Corse, Joe LoGiudice Gallery, New York
The Michener Collection: American Paintings of the Twentieth Century, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
1971
Ten Young Artists: Theodoran Awards, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Twenty-Four Young Los Angeles Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1970
1970 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Permutations, Light and Color, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Young Artists, New Work, Locksley Shea Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Looking West 1970, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE (cat.)
1969
Electric Art, UCLA Art Galleries, Los Angeles, CA (cat.)
1968
The West Coast Now: Current Work from the Western Seaboard, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, TX
Chapman University, Orange, CA
Dia Art Foundation, New York, NY
Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Long Museum, Shanghai, China
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
UCI Institute and Museum of California Art, Irvine, CA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY