Art Review

Matte Maker: Almost half a century after Ad Reinhardt, stripe paintings are no longer revolutionary. Yet as with those other Modernist standbys--the monochrome and the grid--there is always room for refinement.

Mary Corse’s eight new paintings at Chac Mool Gallery demonstrate something rather interesting: The thing that is repeatedly refined itself becomes the picture of refinement.

Either white on white or black on black, Corse’s large canvases juxtapose bands of matte color with bands that seem to sparkle from within. In the white paintings, the iridescence comes from tiny bits of glass, the artist’s signature “micro spheres,” which have been crushed into the pigment; in the black paintings, small metallic squares lend certain passages their glitter.

As one passes in front of the vertically sectioned canvases, the light seems to follow, illuminating heretofore concealed patterns--traces of brush strokes and so on.

All this is directed toward a specific end that--appearances aside--has very little to do with decoration. The artist wishes to choreograph a perceptual epiphany for the viewer, rather than present a static object.

Yet Corse is successful in this only on the level of metaphor. At a moment when temporal experiences of various sorts--videotapes, performances and so on--are readily available in galleries, paintings necessarily function differently. Corse’s are no exception and no less radiant because of it.

* Chac Mool Gallery, 8920 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, (310) 550-6792, through Aug. 30. Closed Sunday and Monday.