“My vision is simply the world as I would like it to be.”
—Lynne DrexlerA disciple of Robert Motherwell and contemporary of Joan Mitchell, Lynne Drexler stood at the forefront of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists. The impasto-rich surfaces of the artist’s lyrical canvases, such as Seasonal Green, 1969, helped propel American abstraction forward by shifting its focus from cerebral interiority to the beauty of the outside world. Her paintings were well-exhibited and acclaimed when they were executed—a Los Angeles Times review in 1965 recognized her “strong, purposeful approach” and “great potential significance” that could not be “dismissed lightly.”ⁱ But as often happened with the women artists of her time, her vital contributions to Post-War abstraction became increasingly sidelined until she was almost written out of the art historical canon altogether. This omission is thankfully being corrected amid a widespread reappraisal of women’s roles in the Abstract Expressionist movement as well as in the legacy of modernism. Exemplary of Drexler's visual thinking at the height of her career, Seasonal Green showcases the groundbreaking approach of this exceptional painter finally receiving her due.

 

The late 1950s and 1960s were the most formative years of Drexler’s career, a galvanizing period that gave her a taste of critical and commercial success. She had moved to New York in 1955 to study under two of the most influential painters of the era: Motherwell and Hans Hofmann, whose theories and teaching guided an entire generation of artists. Finding herself quickly subsumed into the New York School, Drexler rubbed shoulders with her peers at the Cedar Tavern, a legendary Greenwich Village watering hole frequented by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko. By 1961, she had developed a signature stylistic idiom rooted in brilliantly contrasting hues applied in Pointillist swatches, which she unveiled at a solo show at the prestigious Tanager Gallery co-op. Coalescing the opposing color planes of Hofmann’s “push-pull” technique with the expressive power of Motherwell’s canvases, her work began to incorporate the swirling grooves and dense clusters manifest in Seasonal Green by the end of the 1960s. This distinctive imagery, evoking Vincent van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist landscapes, became marked by its resemblance to aerial views of lush forests and rocky coasts.

 

The natural world was perhaps Drexler’s most enduring theme, an endlessly stimulating subject that informed both her palette and the sensations she wished her paintings to invoke. The glistening blues and emerald tones employed in Seasonal Green were no doubt inspired by the rugged coastal landscapes of Maine, which held a special place for the artist until her death there in 1999. The tangle of greens—which is punctuated and defined by discs and winding lines painted in a spectrum of earthy hues—could be interpreted as a sprawling forest reaching out into the Atlantic. After Drexler and her husband John Hultberg spent their honeymoon on Monhegan Island, a rocky, remote island connected to the mainland only by ferry, they continued to make summer visits for two decades before she moved to the island full-time in 1983. An artists’ haven since the late 19^th century, the romantic topography and seclusion of Monhegan Island inspired generations of painters and sculptors, as varied as George Bellows, Louise Nevelson, Edward Hopper, and Andrew Wyeth. The works Drexler painted in the 1960s, including Seasonal Green, were based on sketches and photographs of the wooded areas and pebble seashores she would carry back with her to New York every year: source materials which provided her with a much-needed escape from the urban jungle of downtown Manhattan.

 

Drexler’s commitment to these abstracted landscapes was steadfast and daringly original, especially considering that Seasonal Green was executed during a time when Pop and Minimalism had superseded Abstract Expressionism as the dominant force in the American art world. This was one reason why her work was overlooked for so long: her unwillingness to alter her approach to network or mirror passing trends. “I've always felt deeply within myself I was a damn good artist, though the world didn't recognize me as such,” Drexler recalled. “I wasn't about to play their game.”ⁱⁱ Today these paintings, such as Seasonal Green, stand as a testament to the purity and resilience of her vision. “When you look at her life’s work, you see the humanity,” curator Tralice Bracy expressed. “They are lyrical, joyful, intense paintings.”ⁱⁱⁱ 

 

 

ⁱ  Betje Howell, “Perspective on Art,” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 1965.

ⁱⁱ  Lynne Drexler, quoted in Roger Amory, Lynne Drexler: A Life in Color, Monhegan Island, 2008.

ⁱⁱⁱ  Ted Loos, ”Out of Obscurity, Lynne Drexler’s Abstract Paintings Fetch Millions,” The New York Times, Oct. 22, 2022, online.