Christopher McCain Introduction to Art 12/11/17  Irene Rice Pereira (American, 1902–1971), Projecting Planes. Oil on canvas, 1947.

30 1/8 in. by 40 1/8 in.  Irene Rice Pereira was born August 5, 1902, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in Boston, and was the oldest out of four.

During her career, she spent her childhood in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, dedicating her time reading and writing poetry. After her father’s death in 1918, her family moved to Brooklyn, New York. In 1922 she began her work as a stenographer at an accountant office in cooperation to help her family. She shortly attended fashion design courses at the Traphagen School of Fashion, night courses in literature at New York University, and evening art classes at Manhattan’s Washington Irving High School.

She occupied herself within the bohemian world and her studies. In 1927, she enrolled in night art classes at the Art Students League in New York City. Pereira first exposure to the artistic foundation was the European avant-gardes that inspired her future works; those of the Bauhaus, Cubism, and Constructivism. Later, she traveled to Europe and North Africa to further her studies; As well, attending courses within Paris, Switzerland, and Italy. Irene Rice Pereira paintings first gained recognition in the early 1930s, she was also showcased at the Whitney Museum of American Art, becoming one of the first women to establish cogitative recognition at this event. Latter parts of her years, Pereira abandoned the ideal of abstract expressionism and experienced tension with gallery owners and museum directors. She believed that art was being devoured by the chaotical void of mindlessness. On January 11, 1971, Irene Rice Pereira died of emphysema.

 Irene Rice Pereira Projecting Planes, elements of design have a layout architecture feel. Since Irene Rice Pereira study at the Bauhaus, believing in form follows function. The painting shows her New York heritage in designing this piece, possibly following her childhood along with using the logic of thinking about mankind’s aid within the in the space-time continuum.             The principle of design use within this painting was a mixture of techniques such as Impasto, 3D layering, careful color strategies, implied line, horizontal line, and a usage of interesting shapes that capture the construction. In summarization of Irene Rice Pereira Projecting Planes, would be to describe mankind’s need to find existence of meaning within the forever changing world we call our home.

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