Irene Rice Pereira

A 1964 Pereira oil painting, Light Extending Itself, is part of the Non-Objective Art exhibition at The Brooklyn Museum. This exhibition is itself part of the larger Modern Life exhibition on the 5th floor. Light Extending Itself is the gift of Howard Weingrow.

Pereira had a special connection to Brooklyn. She, her two sisters, brother and mother lived near the museum when Pereira first went to work as secretary to help support the family. She and her younger sister, the artist Juanita Guccione, then called Anita Rice, followed their younger sister, Dorothy, into art studies, but Dorothy died in her early thirties.

Both Irene and Anita studied at Pratt Institute and traveled to North Africa in the 1930s. Irene visited various places in Morocco and Algeria. Anita settled in Bou Saada, Algeria, for several years. Their experience of
the quality of light in North Africa had a lasting impact on their work.

In 1935-6, Anita, who then painted under the name Juanita Marbrook, exhibited a number of paintings she had made in Algeria in The Brooklyn Museum. The work received considerable media attention at the time. These works are now part of 174 oils, watercolors and drawings permanently exhibited in Algiers by Sonatrach, the Algerian national energy company. It is believed the artist is the first American woman painter to receive this kind of attention by a Muslim nation.