Explosions of Color | Dimensions of Sound: The Art of Lynne Mapp Drexler

EXPLOSIONS of Color DIMENSIONS of Sound The Art of LYNNE MAPP DREXLER JODY KLOTZ FINE ART



EXPLOSIONS of Color Dimensions of SOUND The Art of LYNNE MAPP DREXLER SUMMER/FALL 2021 JODY KLOTZ FINE ART 1060 North 2nd Street • Abilene, TX 79601 • 325.670.9880 [email protected] • www.jodyklotz.com

JODY KLOTZ FINE ART GALLERY STAFF JODY KLOTZ JOSHUA WRIGHT | GALLERY DIRECTOR MANDY LAMBRIGHT | CREATIVE DIRECTOR BILL HUBER | FACTOTUM

PREFACE JODY KLOTZ I have a fantasy. I practically tumbled out of my mother’s womb. Having had an unusual childhood, I grew up doing acrobatics, high wire stunt work, and supering at the Metropolitan Opera House. At 11 years old, I was hired by world-renowned director Franco Zefferelli to be the waif-like soloist acrobat in the opera Pagliacci, a tragic story about a troupe of traveling clowns — three minutes in the middle of the stage with 4,000 eyes watching me doing no-handed cartwheels. It was a big deal. My dressers wanted me out of costume quickly, as they had lightning quick changes in this opera, and were infuriated searching for the mischievous child hiding in the wings to watch the legendary tenor, Richard Tucker, sing the heartbreaking aria “Vesti La Giubba” from 10 feet away. A little girl fell under the spell of opera, transported by the glory of the sound and the emotion it communicated. It was undoubtedly a glamorous childhood, performing in 30 or 40 operas, as everything from a seductive prostitute in Manon Lescaut to a high-flying angel in Hansel and Gretel, serenely soaring through the air at a dangerous height over the corps de ballet dancing to the most celestial sounds. But the greatest gift from my 13 years at the Met was unquestionably the love of opera that it gave to me. When I want a thrill, I still listen to Luciano Pavorotti singing “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot, which inevitably brings tears to my eyes. The music soars through my soul.

PREFACE JODY KLOTZ When I realized that Lynne Drexler must have felt similarly, I felt an immediate connection to her. Love at first sight was my response to first seeing her work many years ago. I was enthralled and seduced by her vivid approach to color and exuberant compositions. I am a fool for color, and her distinctive use of it borders on the divine. She was clearly a very interesting figure, and relevant as a woman artist painting in New York in the late 1950s under the illustrious tutelage of Hans Hofmann and Robert Motherwell. But when I read that she loved opera and classical music, and regularly attended the Metropolitan Opera with her sketchbook in her lap, transposing the resplendent sounds into color scale sketches inspired by Hofmann’s musical color theories, I felt a stirring. Drexler painted a whole series of work inspired by Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and named her numerous cats after Wagnerian operatic characters, like Amfortas, the king in Wagner’s Parsifal. She joked about what her big city dealer could tell the collectors in New York when they asked about her, suggesting that she’d “become a hermit - an eccentric one at that and I only come to New York when provided with orchestra tickets to the Met.” A quote from the artist, “It was just the soaring...the gloriousness of the music. The beauty...the power and the glory of it,” expresses how profoundly the music affected her. As I soared through the air as a flying angel on a wing and a prayer, transported by the heavenly music, my fantasy is, perhaps Lynne was there with her sketchbook...

PREFACE JODY KLOTZ

THAT WAS THEN: THIS IS NOW JUDY TEDFORD DEATON • CHIEF CURATOR, THE GRACE MUSEUM The frequency with which the art world is “discovering” women artists begs the question; why now? The current interest in the work of women artists is undoubtedly a product of the feminist movement and a very worthy endeavor. Thomas McCormick, of McCormick Gallery in Chicago, in the preface for Drexler’s posthumous 2010 solo exhibition, Lynne Drexler - Early Spring, begins by writing about following a lead in 2008 with his colleague Vincent Vallarino. They found a garage packed full of art including one small canvas by Drexler — an artist they had never heard of. “…We discovered that this was in fact not some unknown dauber who happened to paint one good picture, but rather a well regarded member of the New York School. A lost female abstract expressionist who quit New York City sometime in the eighties…” The now documented list of Drexler’s (1928-1999) prominent associates in the 1960s and 1970s has elevated her current art world status in 2021. The relationships with well-known artists, mentors and cohorts active during those years include Robert Motherwell, Hans Hofmann, and other Abstract Expressionist luminaries. Most recently, famed auction house Christie’s included Drexler in an A-list, Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale titled Trailblazers: Centuries of Female Abstraction, alongside other female artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan and Yvonne Thomas. In their early years, relationships were not always advantageous to female artists. In the 20th century, many women artists were overshadowed by the art world’s male dominated dictum. They stood in shadow of their current male partner’s fame, overlooked in the early heyday of second-generation Abstract Expressionist Modernism. In a video interview in 2008, Lynne Drexler described herself in the 1960s as a hand maiden to her husband, artist John Hultberg. (Lynne Drexler: A Life in Color, a Roger Amory film produced by the Mohegan Island Museum, in association with Pound of Tea Productions) Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning and Willem de Kooning, are but a few examples. Grace Hartigan even resorted to using the alias George Hartigan in the style of George Sand and George Eliot until 1954. The female artist authority, Mary Gabriel, in her May 14, 2021 article for the Christie’s auction placed Drexler in the context of major women artists of her era, stating that, “Rewriting art history challenges dogmas of the past and sets a tone for future developments in the art world with variety of motives.” In our rush to set the record straight, it is a thoughtful exercise to examine the 2021 monetized lens of art world success, as well as the artist’s personal concept of success as an artist. As noted in the 2008

THAT WAS THEN: THIS IS NOW JUDY TEDFORD DEATON • CHIEF CURATOR, THE GRACE MUSEUM video, Drexler confided to a friend, “I did not want to be defined as a woman painter. I want to be seen as an artist.” This exhibition of Drexler’s art offers the opportunity to view her art as the work of an accomplished individual. Drexler intentionally left the center of the art world, New York City, in favor of immersing herself full- time into the natural world of remote Monhegan Island, Maine in 1983. After her marriage to abstract artist John Hultberg in 1961, the couple spent summers on the island while continuing to work in New York City. The island’s isolation suited her so well that she moved to Monhegan Island permanently in 1983. Did the move help or hinder her career? Ann Hughey and Helen Feibush wrote in an article for On Island, the catalogue to a Drexler retrospective at the Monhegan Museum and the Portland Art Museum, that Monhegan was “a place where solitude is respected.” Lynne Drexler died in 1999, leaving behind a large body of work, created over six decades, stockpiled in her secluded home on Monhegan Island. Drexler lived the last years of her life there, and she never stopped painting. Today she is appreciated for her unique ability to combine Post Impressionist landscape painting with Post War painterly abstraction. Take a close look at the paintings in this exhibition and you will see her signature brushwork and her unique style focusing on color and composition, as well as her love of nature and mastery of abstraction. You will find that viewing Drexler’s paintings resonates with the inspiration behind the finished product and the legacy of the female artists for whom the work is ultimately the tribute.

“It was just the soaring…the gloriousness of the music. The beauty…the power and the glory of it.” - LYNNE MAPP DREXLER

VIRGINIA SPRING, 1960 Oil on canvas 30 ½ x 36 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / VIRGINIA SPRING / 1960

PLUMED YELLOW, 1968 Oil on canvas 40 x 31 ¾ inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / 1968 / PLUMED YELLOW

EVENSONG, 1968 Oil on canvas 40 x 32 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / EVENSONG / 1968

FLORAL ABUNDANCE, 1971 Oil on canvas 36 x 42 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / FLORAL ABUNDANCE / 1971

“…and that’s what got me to painting a whole series of abstract paintings…I would sit and draw through the Opera… to the music…just in pencil, but then I’d go translate them into color in painting.” - LYNNE MAPP DREXLER

SUMMER BLOSSOM, 1962 Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / SUMMER BLOSSOM / 1962

AUTUMN GROUND, 1969 Oil on canvas 38 ¾ x 31 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / AUTUMN GROUND / 1969

“And then you get to a lot of paintings…where she’s looking at something in nature and creating or constructing nature out of the vibration of color when you’re putting one piece of color next to another piece of color and what happens…and she creates this movement that is incredible.” - TRALICE BRACY CURATOR, MONHEGAN MUSEUM

DAFFODIL GLOUCESTER, 1960 Oil on canvas 22 ½ x 23 ¾ inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / DAFFODIL GLOUCESTER / 1960

STAGNANT IRIDESCENCE, 1969 Oil on canvas 40 x 31 ½ inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / STAGNANT IRIDESCENCE / 1969

IGNITED BUSH, 1968 Oil on linen 50 x 38 ½ inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / IGNITED BUSH / 1968

GREEN ENTRY, 1963 Oil on canvas 30 x 38 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / GREEN ENTRY / 1963

“I think she was a colorist first…and she had a language of shapes that she built up with paint…and the color was probably the most important, extraordinary thing about her paintings.” - SUSAN GILBERT PAINTER

ROSE TO RED, 1968 Oil on canvas 39 ⅛ x 25 ¾ inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / 1968 / ROSE TO RED

JOMO’S WORLD, 1966 Oil on canvas 22 x 22 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / JOMO’S WORLD / 1966

“I think Lynne was taking her life, her feelings, and putting it down with as much power as she could…in the painting…she poured herself into her work… you feel that she’s right in there with her work.” - FRANCIS KORNBLUTH PAINTER

UNTITLED, 1962 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Signed and dated on reverse: LYNNE DREXLER / 1962

LYNNE MAPP DREXLER AMERICAN, 1928-1999 “I’ve always felt deeply within my soul that I was a damn good artist, though the world didn’t recognize me as such. I wasn’t about to play their game.” - Lynne Mapp Drexler Lynne Mapp Drexler found her artistic voice during one of the most exciting and significant art movements of the 20th century. Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1928, Drexler began her study of art as a child. Her parents, who were very supportive of both the visual and performing arts, enrolled Drexler in various art courses, and her early introduction to music would directly influence her later mature work. In the late 1950s, after attending the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Drexler became interested in contemporary art. She was encouraged to explore this venue by her uncle, who had ties to the Hudson River School of painting, and by some of her more influential teachers. She immersed herself in Abstract Expressionism, studying with Hans Hofmann in both his New York and Provincetown schools. It would be Hofmann’s work as a colorist and his theories on color that would be one of Drexler’s most significant influences. From there, she went on to graduate study at Hunter College in New York City with Robert Motherwell. Drexler’s academic training from Motherwell, along with the lessons of color theory from Hofmann, would set the foundation for the style of painting for which she is known. Her swatch-like patterns and painterly blossoms of color are quite unique when compared to her contemporaries of the Abstract Expressionist genre. In her early works, Drexler focused on color and composition, eventually reconciling her two interests – landscape and abstraction – in her late work of the 1980s and 1990s. But it was in the 1950s that she set her foundation – a synthesis of Post Impressionist landscape painting and Post War painterly abstraction. The results are something not familiar to most students of the period, and her crisp, colorful brushwork set her apart. Classical music remained an important part of her art. When she lived in New York she regularly attended concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera, and would often make sketches inspired by the music while she was in the audience. The musical inspiration in her work echoes the theories of her teacher, Hans Hofmann, who promoted the idea that colors have scales in the same way

LYNNE MAPP DREXLER AMERICAN, 1928-1999 that music has scales. Her vibrant surfaces are both complex and painterly, but with a flatness akin to something found in the background of a Gustav Klimt work. In 1961, Drexler met and married fellow artist John Hultberg at The Artist’s Club in New York, where accomplished artists gathered to discuss Abstract Expressionism. Through their connections, she had her first solo exhibition at Tanager Gallery. Unlike her male counterparts, Drexler found it difficult finding gallery representation in the gender-biased atmosphere of the New York art world, while her husband was quite successful and was considered a talented up-and-comer as an abstract artist. In 1971, Hultberg's art dealer, Martha Jackson, bought him a house on Monhegan Island, Maine, which had a small summer art colony, and the couple split their time between New York City and Maine. For Drexler, summering there would be a major change in her life. The solitude of the island and the inspiration of the natural surroundings greatly impacted her artistic career. Drexler would sketch outdoors on the island. Then, back in New York during the winters, these sketches were reimagined into large colorful abstract paintings. By 1983, Drexler moved permanently to the island, near Lighthouse Hill. Drexler lived the last 16 years of her life on Monhegan Island. Drexler passed away in 1999 on Monhegan Island surrounded by her friends and fellow islanders. After her death, the estate fell to her friends, who were charged with the difficult task of assessing her body of work. While extracting the many paintings from the Drexler house, they were shocked to realize the magnitude and multitude of paintings. Works of art not seen for decades were pulled from the basement, closets and even from under mattresses. Drexler exhibited throughout her life at venues such as Tanager Gallery, Esther Robles Gallery and Westerly Gallery. Retrospective exhibitions of her work were held at the Monhegan Museum and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Monhegan Museum, Farnsworth Museum, Brooklyn Museum and the Queens Museum among others.

LYNNE MAPP DREXLER SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Sun Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1959 Twentieth Century Gallery, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1960s Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, 1960 Tanager Gallery, New York, 1961 Tanager Gallery, New York, 1962 Two Person Show, Galleria, San Miguel Allende, Mexico, 1963 Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1965 Westerly Gallery, New York, 1965 Traveling Show, “American Painting”, Sproul Museum, Louisville, Kentucky & Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1966 Nuuana Valley Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1967 “Mr. & Mrs. Painting And Sculpture”, Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1969 Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1970 Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1971 Spring Arts Festival, Educational and Cultural Trust Fund of the Electrical Industry, 1971 Hudson River Museum, Ciba-Geigy Collection, 1971 Traveling Show, “Martha Jackson New York Collection”, Finch College, New York, University of Maryland & Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York, 1973 Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1973 Traveling Show, Ciba-Geigy Collection, “Monhegan Artist Show”, Allentown Museum, 1974 Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1975 “Women Artist Show”, Ciba-Geigy Collection, 1975 Landmark Gallery, New York, 1977 Veydras Ltd, New York, 1981 Aldona Gobuzas Gallery, New York, 1983 Veydras Ltd, New York, 1983 Middlesex Community College, Piscataway, New Jersey, 1984 St. John’s University, Staten Island, New York, 1984 Two Person Show, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, 1987

LYNNE MAPP DREXLER SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Gallery 127, Portland, Maine, 1989 Judith Leighton Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine, 1989 Gallery 6, Portland, Maine, 1989 Two Person Show, The Art Gallery at 6 Deering Street, Portland, Maine, 1992 Lupine Gallery, Monhegan, Maine, 1998 “Women of the 50s”, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, 2002 “Monhegan Modernists, Collection of John Day”, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, 2002 Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, 2003 Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, 2003 Greenhut Galleries, Portland, Maine, 2005 Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, 2005 “A Century of Women Artist on Monhegan Island”, Monhegan Museum, Maine, 2005 Opalka Gallery, Albany, New York, 2005 Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, Maine, 2005 Jameson Moderne Gallery, Portland, Maine, 2007 Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York, 2007 “Collector’s Choices”, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, 2007 “Women Artists of Monhegan Island”, UNE Gallery, Portland, Maine, 2007 “Three from Maine”, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, 2007 “Lynne Drexler, Painter”, Monhegan Museum & the Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 2008 Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, 2008 “Lynne Drexler - Early Spring”, McCormick Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 2010

LYNNE MAPP DREXLER MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine Brooklyn Museum, New York Ciba-Geigy Collection, New York Doug and Jaimee Baker Collection, California Ellen Zeman and Paul Hale Collection, Vermont Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine Fromer-McCree Living Trust, Utah Greenville County Museum, South Carolina Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York Janice Lyle Collection, California John Legend and Chrissy Teigen Collection, New York Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina Martha Jackson Collection, New York Maureen Shapiro and Ben Rosenthal Collection Monhegan Museum, Monhegan Island, Maine Museum of Modern Art, New York National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Portland Museum of Art, Maine Provincetown Art Association Museum, Massachusetts Prentice-Hall Collection Queens Museum for Art Education, New York Rick and Sue Miller Collection, California Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico University Museum of Contemporary Art, Amherst, Massachusetts Upper image: Lynne Mapp Drexler, circa 1960 Lower image: Lynne Mapp Drexler, as pictured in American Artist magazine, May, 1988, photo by Robert Field Quotes taken from Lynne Drexler: A Life in Color, a Roger Amory film produced by the Monhegan Island Museum and Pound of Tea Productions, 2008



JODY KLOTZ FINE ART 1060 North 2nd Street • Abilene, TX 79601 • 325.670.9880 [email protected] • www.jodyklotz.com