1953 was an auspicious year for Irene Rice Pereira. Her two person exhibition with Loren MacIver had opened at the Whitney and went on tour to three other venues including the Des Moines Art Center, San Francisco Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.
The exhibition included both abstract and mythologically based representational works. What is the Song, created in October of that year illustrates a mystical figure, with a star in its belly, emerging from a portal of energy. According to Andre' Zarre who worked for Pereira in the studio, Pereira made a daily practice of executing meditation drawings which were analogous to automatic writing and were a stark counterpoint to her highly rigorous and better accepted geometric compositions. What is the Song is a fine example of Pereira's willingness to let imagery come forward that was a product of her unconscious and not part of her formal studio production regimen.
Courtesy of Steven Lowy
Auction Results Irene Rice Pereira
