Irene Rice Pereira (1901–1971) was an abstract artist whose work reflected an interest in light, space and mysticism. She began her studies at the Art Students League from 1927-30 and then traveled to Acadamie Moderne, Paris for her last year of schooling. Becoming bored with the traditional academicism at the Acadamie, Pereira left for the Sahara Desert. There she encountered her first “vision of eternity”, which she attempted to incorporate throughout her artistic career.
Pereira moved back to New York City in 1932 and painted canvases based on the relationship between man and machine. Her first show was the following year at the ACA Gallery. Pereira experimented with nontraditional materials frequently and by the late ’30d she was painting on plastics and glass, adding marble dust to her pigments. During the thirties, she taught at the WPA’s Design library, bestowing many students with the influence of the Bauhaus School. In the 1940s, created multimedia paintings, superimposing layers of glass to explore the effects of resonating light.
By 1947, Pereira had mostly finished her pioneering experiments with coruscated and layered glass and had moved onto more complex oil canvases. The best examples of this later style are Green Mass at The National Gallery of Art and Mecca at the National Museum of American Art.
- biography courtesy of Djelloul Marbrook and The Caldwell Gallery, Manilus, NY
Reign of Fire is a striking example of mid-century American abstraction, reflecting Irene Rice Pereira’s deep engagement with light, energy, and metaphysical inquiry. Known for blending modernist formalism with spiritual and scientific thought, Pereira constructs the composition from radiant layers of red, orange, and gold geometric forms. These elements appear to emanate outward in rhythmic, translucent bands, creating the impression of heat and motion. Unlike some of her more purely abstract works, Reign of Fire introduces a subtle landscape quality through an implied horizon, grounding the luminous energy in a spatial context. Influenced by Cubism and Constructivism, yet softened by her use of light and transparency, the painting balances structural precision with a meditative, atmospheric quality. It is both a visual exploration of elemental forces and a symbolic reflection on perception and inner awareness.