Wiscasset Bay Gallery in Wiscasset presents “Lynne Mapp Drexler — The Dynamic Early Years 1959-1963,” featuring a previously unexhibited group of works from a private collection on Monhegan Island. The exhibition opens Aug. 7 and remains on view through Sept. 4.
Among the works is “Untitled, Abstract in Blues and Oranges,” a gouache Drexler created in 1959. The painting reflects her early artistic influences while revealing the distinct voice and vibrant sense of color that would define her work.
After moving to New York City in 1955 at age 27, Drexler enrolled in the Hofmann School of Fine Arts, where she studied with Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann. She drew upon Hofmann’s theories of push and pull — expanding and contracting forces created largely through planes of color — while developing her own approach.
Drexler later studied with Robert Motherwell at Hunter College’s graduate school. His emphasis on composition and draftsmanship can be seen in the powerful elliptical forms emerging from the pointillist marks in “Untitled, Abstract in Blues and Oranges.”
Drexler married fellow artist John Hultberg in 1962, and the couple honeymooned that summer on Monhegan Island, where Hultberg owned a home. They began spending summers on the island and winters in New York while also traveling abroad. Drexler’s experience of living close to the natural world on Monhegan led her to introduce increasingly organic forms into her abstractions.
In “Untitled VIII,” an oil-stick work on paper from 1963, rectilinear forms and repetitive lines and dots expand in multiple directions. The lines suggest tall grasses while small blocks of color evoke wildflowers in bloom, showing the increasingly vibrant and emotive use of color that emerged in Drexler’s work during this period.
Wiscasset Bay Gallery is at 75 Main St., Wiscasset. The gallery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 207-882-7682, email info@wiscassetbaygallery.com or visit wiscassetbaygallery.com.
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