Hirshhorn Proclaims “Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium” Surveying the Profession of Summary American Photographer

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has introduced “Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium,” a survey of labor by the American summary photographer and educator. Carlotta Corpron’s investigations into the poetics of sunshine and type and progressive use of know-how supported the institution of images as fantastic artwork. Highlighting her biography and inventive achievements, the exhibition positions Corpron (1901­­–1988) within the vanguard by way of six our bodies of images she made in Texas between the late Thirties and early ’50s. The exhibition showcases 48 latest items by Herbert Lust to the Hirshhorn, in addition to extra loans from his assortment. Organized by Hirshhorn Assistant Curator Betsy Johnson, “Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium” can be on view from Feb. 27, 2026, by way of Jan. 31, 2027.

“Carlotta Corpron was a trailblazing American artist who has not yet received the recognition or scholarly inquiry she deserves,” mentioned Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu. “We are proud to introduce her work through Herbert Lust’s gift to the nation, which expands significantly the Hirshhorn’s holdings of modern photography.” 

Corpron spent most of her life faraway from the city facilities of the artwork world, shifting to Denton, Texas, in 1935 to show artwork historical past and design at Texas State College for Women (as we speak Texas Women’s University). Nevertheless, she aligned herself with worldwide visionaries and influential photographers, together with Alfred Stieglitz, László Moholy-Nagy and György Kepes, who targeted on elevating images as a fantastic artwork type. 

In the United States, a brand new mode of inventive exploration for summary images flourished on the New Bauhaus in Chicago, based in 1937 below the course of Moholy-Nagy. The New Bauhaus curriculum underlined images’s relationship to gentle, influential ideas that remained central all through Corpron’s apply, from her introduction to the medium in 1933 by way of 1955 when she stopped working within the darkroom for well being causes. From her earliest work, Corpron was fascinated by how gentle modifications notion of type and the way this operate might be conveyed by way of a digicam lens. Her inquiry into the impression of sunshine on type was central to her six our bodies of labor on view on the Hirshhorn: “Nature Studies,” “Light Drawings,” “Light Patterns,” “Light Follows Form,” “Space Compositions” and “Fluid Light Designs.” 

“Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium” traces the artist’s improvement from photographing nature to gestural gentle drawings and formal research of sunshine and type, culminating in advanced expansions and distortions of area. Corpron’s earliest collection, the intermittent “Nature Studies,” established her model of foregrounding gentle as the first topic of her photographic work, starting with the consequences of sunshine modulated by way of Venetian blinds on floral preparations. Within her second collection, “Light Drawings,” Corpron experimented with the impression of digicam motion on shifting gentle, like a revolving carnival trip, to create gestural abstractions. Working at dwelling and within the darkroom on campus, Corpron expanded upon these methods, introducing on a regular basis objects corresponding to mirrored trays and paperweights to create new summary photographs. In due course, “Light Patterns” and “Light Follows Form” chart examinations of modulated gentle on paper and glass varieties, and throughout the floor of sculptural objects, respectively. These avenues of exploration led to her most advanced and experimental our bodies of labor made between 1940–1950, the peak of her productiveness. “Space Compositions” captures the artist’s curiosity within the potential of sunshine, by way of reflection and refraction, to create area. “Fluid Light Designs” invitations viewers to shift their vantage factors from objects and concentrate on gentle itself.

“Joe Hirshhorn and I were neighbors and good friends for over 30 years,” Lust mentioned. “We shared many interests and especially a passion for the work of trailblazing artists. I am excited to join with the Hirshhorn in presenting this long overdue survey of Carlotta Corpron’s groundbreaking abstractions, created using the medium of light itself.”

The exhibition can be accompanied by free public applications inserting Corpron’s work throughout the canon of American images.

About the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the nationwide museum of contemporary and modern artwork and a number one voice for Twenty first-century artwork and tradition. Part of the Smithsonian, the Hirshhorn is situated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Its holdings embody probably the most essential collections of postwar world artwork on this planet. The Hirshhorn presents various exhibitions and affords an array of public applications on the artwork of our time—free to all. The Hirshhorn Museum is open Mondays midday–5:30 p.m. and Tuesdays–Sundays 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. (besides Dec. 25). For extra info, go to hirshhorn.si.edu. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

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