Lynne Mapp Drexler (May 21, 1928– December 30, 1999) was an American abstract and representational artist, painter and photographer.

Early life and education

Lynne Drexler was born on May 21, 1928 and raised in the

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

, area. Her parents were Norman E. Drexler, a manager at a public utility, and Lynne P. Drexler. At the age of 11, she was an only child and had been living in Raleigh Terrace,

Elizabeth City Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic and educ ...

(now

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick *Hamp ...

), Virginia. She began painting as a child. Later, Drexler took art classes in Virginia at the

Richmond Professional Institute The Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) was an educational institution established in 1917 which merged with the Medical College of Virginia to form Virginia Commonwealth University. RPI was located on what is now known as the Monroe Park Campus ...

and at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...

. She moved to New York City in the mid to late 1950s to further her study art under

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

and

Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...

, under their tutelage she developed an interest in

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

.Paintings by Maine artist Lynne Drexler on view at the Portland Museum of Art
. Portlandmuseum.org. August 1, 2008. Retrieved on February 2, 2014. Motherwell taught her composition and draftsmanship techniques and the philosophy "that to be an artist meant first and foremost that one had to create work worthy of attention". Her tendency to create vibrant paintings using a free brush stroke was influenced by Hofmann and the work of

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

. Hofmann also introduced the notion that composition is influenced by color, which he called the "push-pull" concept.

Adulthood

Cosmopolitan life

In the late 1950s, she was an

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

and was "counted among an important group of women artists whose figural and landscape works were often overlooked during the heyday of post-abstract expressionist modernism – artists such as

Jane Freilicher Jane Freilicher (November 19, 1924 – December 9, 2014) was an American representational painter of urban and country scenes from her homes in lower Manhattan and Water Mill, Long Island. She was a member of the informal New York School beginni ...

Lois Dodd Lois Dodd (born 1927 in Montclair, New Jersey) is an American painter. Dodd was a key member of New York's postwar art scene. She played a large part and was involved in the wave of modern artists including Alex Katz and Yvonne Jacquette who exp ...

, and

Jane Wilson Jane Wilson (April 29, 1924 – January 13, 2015) was an American painter associated with both landscape painting and expressionism. She lived and worked in New York City and Water Mill, New York. Early influences Wilson was born in Seymour, ...

." She would often go to opera and symphony performances with a sketchpad and colored crayons in hand to make sketches inspired by the music. Drexler's

Pattern and Decoration Pattern and Decoration was a United States art movement from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The movement has sometimes been referred to as "P&D" or as The New Decorativeness. The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The ...

embroidery and patchwork influenced some of her later works, similar designs often appeared in her painting's backgrounds. In 1961, Drexler met fellow artist

John Hultberg John Hultberg (February 8, 1922 – April 15, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist and Abstract realist painter. Early in his career he was related to the Bay Area Figurative Movement; he was also a lecturer and playwright. Early life a ...

at The Artist's Club in New York. Artists there discussed abstract expressionism. She had her first solo exhibition of eleven works at Tanager Gallery. Drexler and Hultberg were married on May 25, 1962 and for three years they traveled and lived in Mexico, the West Coast and Hawaii. They then lived at New York's Chelsea Hotel in the late 1960s.Lynne Drexler biography.
Spanierman Modern. Retrieved February 2, 2014. In an exhibition of seven married couples, ''Mr. and Mrs.'' at Alonzo, Drexler's painting "is concerned with juxtaposing diversely patterned areas of vivid colors" while her husband's work was said to reflect "an outer-space, figurative orientation".

Monhegan Island

The couple bought a summer house off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island in 1971. By 1983, Drexler lived year-around near Lighthouse Hill on

Monhegan Island Monhegan () is an island in the Gulf of Maine located in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. A plantation, a minor civil division in the state of Maine falling between unincorporated area and a town, it is located about off the mainland. The ...

, an artists' haven off the coast of Maine. The island people and landscape were the subject of many of her paintings from that time.“Lynne Drexler: Painter” at the Monhegan Museum
Workingwaterfront.com. Retrieved on February 2, 2014."Lynne Drexler: Her light and times."
''The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram'' (March 13, 2010). Retrieved on 2014-02-02. Drexler's paintings became less strictly abstract and exhibited a synthesis of abstract and representational influences. Calm Cove

Drexler died December 30, 1999, at her home on Monhegan Island.

Posthumous exhibitions

After she died, her work was exhibited at a number of galleries, including the

Anita Shapolsky Gallery The Anita Shapolsky Gallery is an art gallery that was founded in 1982 by Anita Shapolsky. It is currently located at 152 East 65th Street, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, in New York City. The gallery specializes in 1950s and 1960s abstract e ...

in New York City, and the Jameson Modern in Portland, Maine. The first comprehensive exhibit of her work – showcasing over fifty paintings, photographic images and textiles – ran at the Monhegan Museum in August and September 2008. It then ran at the

Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. Hi ...

from December 6, 2008, through March 1, 2009. The exhibition was organized by the Monhegan Historical and Cultural Museum Association. In 2010, her works were shown at the Portland Museum and at the McCormick Gallery in Chicago. In 2023,

White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...

announced representation of the Lynne Drexler Archive.https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/11/28/white-cube-lynne-drexler-archive-representation

Collections

Her works are in the collections of: *

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, Chicago, Illinois *

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

, Lewiston, Maine *

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, Brooklyn, New York *

Farnsworth Art Museum The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, United States, is an art museum that specializes in American art. Its permanent collection includes works by such artists as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, Fitz Henry Lan ...

, Rockland, Maine *

Hudson River Museum The Hudson River Museum, located in Trevor Park in Yonkers, New York, is the largest museum in Westchester County. The Yonkers Museum, founded in 1919 at City Hall, became the Hudson River Museum in 1948. While often considered an art museum by th ...

, Yonkers, New York *

Muscarelle Museum of Art The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a university museum affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the Museum only dates to 1983, the university art collection has been in existence since its first gift – a portr ...

, Williamsburg, Virginia *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York *

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

, Washington, D.C. *

, Maine * Prentice Hall Collection, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey *

Provincetown Art Association and Museum The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) is located at 460 Commercial Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is the most attended art museum on Cape Cod. The museum's permanent coll ...

, Provincetown, Massachusetts *

Queens Museum The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its pe ...

, Queens, New York * Tamarind Print Collection, Los Angeles *

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

, Amherst

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drexler, Lynne Mapp 1999 deaths 1928 births Painters from New York (state) 20th-century American women painters