Primordial Blaze of the Absolute

IRENE RICE-PEREIRA, 1902-1971

Irene Rice Pereira (1902-1971) was an abstract painter, poet and philosopher. Born in Massachusetts, Pereira early on supported her family as an accountant. At twenty-five, she began to pursue the arts by enrolling in night classes at the Art Student League in New York City. It was during the 1930s and 1940s that she became a prominent figure in the New York art scene, known for her geometric and rectilinear works, and later for her glass paintings. Her success is reflected in the showcase of her art by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Pereira's interest in philosophy influenced both her paintings and her writings. As a writer she worked prolifically, but she never received the same acclaim as she got for her painting. In 1944, she published her first article, "An Abstract Painter on Abstract Art". She continued to write throughout her life, addressing topics such as structure, time, optics, and space. She published her last work, The Poetic of the Form of Space, Light and the Infinite in 1969.

The Irene Rice Pereira Papers collection is divided into seven series: Periodical, Address Book, Art Inventor ies, Manuscript, Original Work, Photocopies, and Book. The first series contains periodicals. The periodicals have writings by Pereira, reviews of her, and generally match her philosophical interests. The second series is Pereira's personal address book. Series three contends record keeping notes by Pereira regarding her paintings. Inventories of her paintings are in notebooks and a group of notecards record the condition of the paintings. The fourth series is a manuscript of Pereira's memoir, which includes photographs of Pereira's work. The photographs are in their original positions, in Mylar sleeves. The largest series is series six, which contains photocopies of notebooks by Pereira copied from the originals in the Schlesinger Library. The last series is a copy of Pereira's 1957 book, the Lapis.

The collection is contained in twelve boxes, which are located in the Library and Research Center. The periodicals in the collection were part of the Library of Irene Rice Pereira, which was donated by the nephew of Pereira, Djelloul Marbrook, to the Washington Women's Art Center in 1973. In 1986 the Irene Rice Pereira Library was donated to the Library and Research Center of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Source: Biography from National Museum of Women in the Arts