Lynne Drexler (1928-1999)
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Lynne Drexler was an American artist who is best known for lyrical abstractions that fuse Post-Impressionist and Abstract Expressionist influences. Her most sought after paintings include canvases inspired by landscapes and flora, depicted in a style that is spontaneous yet artfully composed. Drexel’s brilliant use of color and musically inspired compositions emanate a sense of joy and harmony.
The only child of Southern parents, she grew up in Elizabeth City, (now Hampton) Virginia and became interested in art and painting at an early age. As a young adult she took art classes at the Richmond Professional Institute and the College of William and Mary. After moving to New York City, where Abstract Expressionism was the dominant style, she attended Hunter College where one of her teachers was Robert Motherwell. She also studied in Provincetown with Hans Hofmann, the highly influential German-American artist who was an evangelist for abstraction and modernism. Hofmann influenced Drexel’s use of color as a formal device and to her practice of building compositions through various tones and textures. By the late 1950s she had become one of a number of women artists on the East Coast who worked both representationally and abstractly.
Always interested in music, Drexler attended musical performances with a sketchpad in hand. During concerts Drexler would draw in her seat while the music played, then return to her studio, where she created forms that expressed the way the music had affected her. In 1961, the same year she met her soon-to-be husband, the artist John Hultberg, she had her first solo show at the Tanager Gallery. After their 1962 marriage the couple traveled and lived in Mexico, California and Hawaii. Upon their return to New York several years later they lived in the Chelsea Hotel, which provided homes and studios to many notable artists. Drexler was influenced by her husband’s spatially oriented abstractions, but their marriage suffered as the result of his struggles with alcoholism. Over time, the couple also grew disenchanted with the art world and tired of the expense and intensity of living in New York City.
In 1971 Drexel and Hultberg purchased a summer home off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island, a rocky outpost with a population of less than 100 people. After they separated in 1983, Drexler lived on the island full time in a house near Lighthouse Hill in an area popular with other artists. Remembered by some as a recluse she sometimes sold seascapes made for tourists to pay the bills. Drexel continued painting actively until her death on December 30, 1999, creating abstractions along with boldly colored portraits and florals that show the influence of Henri Matisse. She left behind a home filled with rolled-up canvases that had never before been shown.
Drexler’s work is included in the permanent collections of several museums including the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; the Monhegan Museum, Maine; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The only child of Southern parents, she grew up in Elizabeth City, (now Hampton) Virginia and became interested in art and painting at an early age. As a young adult she took art classes at the Richmond Professional Institute and the College of William and Mary. After moving to New York City, where Abstract Expressionism was the dominant style, she attended Hunter College where one of her teachers was Robert Motherwell. She also studied in Provincetown with Hans Hofmann, the highly influential German-American artist who was an evangelist for abstraction and modernism. Hofmann influenced Drexel’s use of color as a formal device and to her practice of building compositions through various tones and textures. By the late 1950s she had become one of a number of women artists on the East Coast who worked both representationally and abstractly.
Always interested in music, Drexler attended musical performances with a sketchpad in hand. During concerts Drexler would draw in her seat while the music played, then return to her studio, where she created forms that expressed the way the music had affected her. In 1961, the same year she met her soon-to-be husband, the artist John Hultberg, she had her first solo show at the Tanager Gallery. After their 1962 marriage the couple traveled and lived in Mexico, California and Hawaii. Upon their return to New York several years later they lived in the Chelsea Hotel, which provided homes and studios to many notable artists. Drexler was influenced by her husband’s spatially oriented abstractions, but their marriage suffered as the result of his struggles with alcoholism. Over time, the couple also grew disenchanted with the art world and tired of the expense and intensity of living in New York City.
In 1971 Drexel and Hultberg purchased a summer home off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island, a rocky outpost with a population of less than 100 people. After they separated in 1983, Drexler lived on the island full time in a house near Lighthouse Hill in an area popular with other artists. Remembered by some as a recluse she sometimes sold seascapes made for tourists to pay the bills. Drexel continued painting actively until her death on December 30, 1999, creating abstractions along with boldly colored portraits and florals that show the influence of Henri Matisse. She left behind a home filled with rolled-up canvases that had never before been shown.
Drexler’s work is included in the permanent collections of several museums including the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; the Monhegan Museum, Maine; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.