Carlotta Corpron abstract photography at Hirshorn

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces “Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium,” a survey of work by the American abstract photographer and educator whose investigations into the poetics of light and form and innovative use of technology supported the establishment of photography as fine art. Highlighting her biography and artistic achievements, the exhibition positions Corpron (1901-1988) in the vanguard through six bodies of photography made by the artist in Texas between the late 1930s and the early 1950s. The exhibition showcases 48 recent gifts by Herbert Lust to the Hirshhorn, as well as additional loans from his collection.

Organized by Hirshhorn Assistant Curator Betsy Johnson, “Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium” will be on view from February 27, 2026, through January 31, 2027.

“Carlotta Corpron was a trailblazing American artist who has not yet received the recognition or scholarly inquiry she deserves,” Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu said. “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 removed from the urban centers of the art world, moving to Denton, TX, in 1935 to teach art history and design at Texas State College for Women (today Texas Women’s University). Nevertheless, she aligned herself with international visionaries and influential photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, László Moholy-Nagy, and György Kepes, who focused on elevating photography as a fine art form.

In the United States, a new mode of creative exploration for abstract photography flourished at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, founded in 1937 under the direction of Moholy-Nagy. The New Bauhaus curriculum underlined photography’s relationship to light, influential principles that remained central throughout Corpron’s practice, from her introduction to the medium in 1933 through 1955 when she stopped working in the darkroom for health reasons.

From her earliest work, Corpron was fascinated by how light changes perception of form and how this function could be conveyed through a camera lens. Her inquiry into the impact of light on form was central to her six bodies of work on view at the Hirshhorn: Nature Studies, Light Drawings, Light Patterns, Light Follows Form, Space Compositions, andFluid Light Designs.

“Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium” traces the artist’s development from photographing nature to gestural light drawings and formal studies of light and form, culminating in complex expansions and distortions of space. Corpron’s earliest series, the intermittent Nature Studies, established her style of foregrounding light as the primary subject of her photographic work, beginning with the effects of light modulated through Venetian blinds on floral arrangements. Within her second series, Light Drawings, Corpron experimented with the impact of camera movement on shifting light, like a revolving carnival ride, to create gestural abstractions.

Working both at home and in the darkroom on campus, Corpron expanded upon these techniques, introducing everyday objects such as mirrored trays and paperweights to create new abstract images. In due course, Light Patterns and Light Follows Form charts examinations of modulated light, on paper and glass forms, and across the surface of sculptural objects, respectively. These avenues of exploration led to her most complex and experimental bodies of work made between 1940-1950, the height of her productivity.

Space Compositions captures the artist’s interest in the potential of light, through reflection and refraction, to create space. Fluid Light Designs invites viewers to shift their vantage points from objects and focus on light itself.

“Joe Hirshhorn and I were neighbors and good friends for over 30 years. We shared many interests and especially a passion for the work of trailblazing artists,” said Herbert Lust. “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.”

About the Hirshhorn

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the national museum of modern and contemporary art and a leading voice for 21st-century art and culture. Part of the Smithsonian, the Hirshhorn is located prominently on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Its holdings encompass one of the most important collections of postwar American and European art in the world.

The Hirshhorn presents diverse exhibitions and offers an array of public programs on the art of our time—free to all.

The Hirshhorn Museum is open Mondays noon–5:30 pm and Tuesdays–Sundays 10 am–5:30 pm (except Dec. 25).

For more information, visit www.hirshhorn.si.edu.