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Lot Essay
Painted in 1963, the same year when Lynne Drexler and her husband—painter John Hultberg bought a house on Monhegan Island, Calm Cove marks a turning point in Drexler’s exploration of densely layered and energetically coloured compositions. Spending many summers there, the quiet, rocky island off the coast of Maine, with a year-round population of just sixty-four according to a 2020 consensus, became a source of great inspiration to Drexler. She was deeply moved by the natural forms encountered during her sessions of en plein air painting. In Calm Cove, Drexler’s original and audacious use of colour has reached a new maturity. Her patch-like brushstrokes are formulated in a range of tints and forms, calling to mind mosaic pieces, or ‘tesserae’, which she has assembled in a shimmering rhapsody of violet and red shades punctuated by verses of green. Strewn throughout the painting are tiny elements that allude to coastline, foliage or rocks, in tight groups of vermillion, burgundy and purple. In the present work, all these microscopic details appear to be carried by a breeze and drift through the air. To create a vivid, mesmerising effect, Drexler often juxtaposes two opposing colours in her pictorial landscape. This appears to cause the floating pieces to ascend and rotate in a swirling mass, fabricating a gorgeous, pixelated cloud of colours that hovers above.
Moved to New York in 1955, Drexler was part of the storied Greenwich Village art movement. She was one of the few women artists who attended the Friday night activities at the 8th Street Club, as well as hanging out at Cedar Tavern like Mitchell, Kline and Guston. Drexler began classes with colourist Hans Hofmann in 1956 and learned how to create dynamic colour relationships and how to balance what would become her signature ‘swatch’ or ‘patch-like’ brushstrokes. Greatly inspired by Hofmann’s ‘push and pull’ effect, Drexler forged her own signature style filled with dynamism and movement. Later, she went on and studied under Robert Motherwell to learn how to teach painting, where the older artist immediately noticed her strengths as a painter and stated, ‘I’ll flunk you out of here before I see you go to teach. You’re too good a painter’ (R. Motherwell, quoted in J. Dorfman, “Symphonies of Color,” Art & Antiques, Vol. 45 (December 2021–January 2022), p. 60). Under the tutelage of both great minds, Drexler was able to synthesise her flair for colour with a direct and spontaneous gestural painting style. In Calm Cove, she elicits the best of both worlds—where her intuitive flair for colour is rendered in the short, gestural marks—making her work an exquisite example of Abstract Expressionism.
Drexler is a passionate devotee of classical music. Wilhelm Richard Wagner, who was known for his complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, was one of her favourite composers. As a painter, Drexler adopts a similar approach to the classical composer in Calm Cove by counterposing flurries of busy activity and vibrant contrasts with more quiet, densely packed ideas. Oftentimes, the artist begins to abstract forms and shapes from the music that she is listening to. Using the way the sounds would affect her, Drexler wove in her love of opera and created a symphony of rhythmic colours in the materials that she saw and heard. From New York to Monhegan Island, Lynne Drexler stayed true to her artistic pursuits—abstraction, music, and nature.
Moved to New York in 1955, Drexler was part of the storied Greenwich Village art movement. She was one of the few women artists who attended the Friday night activities at the 8th Street Club, as well as hanging out at Cedar Tavern like Mitchell, Kline and Guston. Drexler began classes with colourist Hans Hofmann in 1956 and learned how to create dynamic colour relationships and how to balance what would become her signature ‘swatch’ or ‘patch-like’ brushstrokes. Greatly inspired by Hofmann’s ‘push and pull’ effect, Drexler forged her own signature style filled with dynamism and movement. Later, she went on and studied under Robert Motherwell to learn how to teach painting, where the older artist immediately noticed her strengths as a painter and stated, ‘I’ll flunk you out of here before I see you go to teach. You’re too good a painter’ (R. Motherwell, quoted in J. Dorfman, “Symphonies of Color,” Art & Antiques, Vol. 45 (December 2021–January 2022), p. 60). Under the tutelage of both great minds, Drexler was able to synthesise her flair for colour with a direct and spontaneous gestural painting style. In Calm Cove, she elicits the best of both worlds—where her intuitive flair for colour is rendered in the short, gestural marks—making her work an exquisite example of Abstract Expressionism.
Drexler is a passionate devotee of classical music. Wilhelm Richard Wagner, who was known for his complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, was one of her favourite composers. As a painter, Drexler adopts a similar approach to the classical composer in Calm Cove by counterposing flurries of busy activity and vibrant contrasts with more quiet, densely packed ideas. Oftentimes, the artist begins to abstract forms and shapes from the music that she is listening to. Using the way the sounds would affect her, Drexler wove in her love of opera and created a symphony of rhythmic colours in the materials that she saw and heard. From New York to Monhegan Island, Lynne Drexler stayed true to her artistic pursuits—abstraction, music, and nature.