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White Rectangles, Number 3

1939
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 912
This painting is filled with white, blue, gold, and rust-colored geometric shapes that produce a collage-like effect. Some of the forms, particularly those near the center, are defined with strong black outlines, while various patterns and textures articulate others. Pereira used a number of different tools—including, possibly, the blunt end of her brush—to carve into the paint surface, creating troughs that enhance the paint’s physicality and, in repetition, suggest industrial production. Pereira made this work while a member of the Design Laboratory, a cooperative school of industrial design established under the Works Progress Administration. The school advocated the application of abstract design principles not only to painting and sculpture, but also to industrial design and architecture.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: White Rectangles, Number 3
  • Artist: Irene Rice Pereira (American, Chelsea, Massachusetts 1902–1971 Marbella, Spain)
  • Date: 1939
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 24 × 30 in. (61 × 76.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Kathryn E. Hurd Fund, 1983
  • Object Number: 1983.462
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Irene Rice Pereira
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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1960
The Lapis in a Vertical Position Man-God-Soul-Spirit
Irene Rice Pereira
1954
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Irene Rice Pereira
George Wittenborn, Inc.
1957

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