Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an oil painting by the Abstract Expressionist artist Irene Rice Pereira. It dates from 1942 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1942, this untitled work by Irene Rice Pereira is an oil painting executed on vellum, a fine parchment surface, and incorporates granular materials such as sand and marble dust. The piece is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, where it is displayed among other mid‑twentieth‑century American abstractions.
Subject & Meaning
The composition suggests an imagined urban landscape, its surface broken into a grid of sharply defined squares and rectangles. Light and dark zones alternate, and a few luminous openings resemble windows, giving the impression of a stylized cityscape rendered as a flat, puzzle‑like arrangement of blocks.
Technique & Style
Pereira’s application mixes traditional oil pigments with tactile inclusions of sand and marble dust, producing a subtly uneven surface that catches light differently across the picture plane. The color fields remain flat, lacking chiaroscuro, which emphasizes the work’s abstracted, architectural geometry rather than realistic depth.
History & Provenance
After its completion in 1942, the painting entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, where it has remained. Its acquisition reflects MoMA’s interest in experimental American abstraction during the World War II era, and it continues to be cited in surveys of Pereira’s innovative material practices.
Artist & collection
Artist
Irene Rice Pereira, known professionally as I. Rice Pereira, was an American abstract artist, poet and philosopher who played a major role in the development of modernism in the United States. Pereira is known for her…
