White Cube is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by the late American artist Lynne Drexler (1928–99), who is often associated with the second-generation Abstract Expressionist movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. Never fully capitulating herself to the movement, however, Drexler forged a unique aesthetic that synthesised a breadth of influences, including Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Pointillism and the all-over compositional structure of Abstract Expressionism. This exhibition marks her first major presentation in Europe and includes paintings, works on paper and mixed-media collages from a formative period in her artistic career which have never previously been exhibited.

After beginning her formal art education in Virginia, Drexler moved to New York in 1955 at the age of 27 and enrolled at the Hofmann School of Fine Arts, where she studied under the renowned Abstract Expressionist and educator Hans Hofmann. Inspired by Hofmann’s theory of ‘push and pull’, which he defined as the interaction between ‘expanding and contracting forces’, Drexler began to create work that had a sense of depth and yet was without traditional perspective. Another key figure in Drexler’s artistic formation was Robert Motherwell, from whom she learnt composition and draughtsmanship techniques at Hunter College. Through the teaching of these two leading proponents of Abstract Expressionism, Drexler developed a foundational understanding of ways to push colour, space and form in her canvases. By 1959, where this exhibition begins, she had developed the defining elements of her signature style: overlapping, tessellated rectangles of paint that, in their emergence from and recession into the painting surface, offer optical pleasure and dynamism.

As Drexler destroyed many of her early paintings – an act that she believed would allow her to find her ‘voice’ – little is known of her work prior to 1959. Throughout the following decade, she would experiment with various modes of painting in her search for a distinctive artistic vocabulary. Her canvases are built up through mosaic-like brushstrokes; these form passages of flowing colour that seem to be in possession of their own spontaneous logic. Although Drexler’s works are devoid of any figurative or identifiable forms, they often emerge from her memories of the natural landscape or her predilection for classical music, especially opera. The works from this period convey an energy that is at once structured and fluid, rigorous and gestural. In their denser parts some of the works evoke vegetation or foliage, while the composition of others seem to emulate the properties of music, from cadences to momentous crescendos.

Drexler’s abstract painterly language can be understood as a bridge between late-19th century and mid-20th century motifs and ideologies. The Untitled works on paper show evidence of the artist’s interest in the Pointillist works of Georges Seurat, the dense patterning of Les Nabis, particularly Édouard Vuillard, and the spiritual qualities of Wassily Kandinsky. A great admirer of Kandinsky’s art and writing, Hofmann encouraged Drexler to consider the Russian artist’s idea that painting was a visual form of music and to make such analogies in her own work. Later in her career, Drexler was known to paint as she listened to music and make drawings while attending the opera. From 1959–62, she worked in dense, tessellated swatches of colour, but beginning in 1963, she moved towards larger blocks and more varied shapes, and shifted her palette towards bright, saturated hues. In their use of flat, immersive colour, and with a focus on provoking an emotional response in the viewer, Drexler’s work can be seen to adopt elements of Colour field painting, to bolster her visual language further still.

In 1961, Drexler met the painter John Hultberg (1922–2005), who she married later that year. They spent the summer of 1963 in a house that Hultberg owned with his gallerist, Martha Jackson, on Monhegan Island, off the coast of Maine. Reachable only by boat and enjoyed for its remoteness, Monhegan Island had long attracted artists during the summer months, including George Bellows and Edward Hopper.

The play of light and shadow and the rugged coastline of the island soon found their way into Drexler’s paintings, and the years 1963–64 saw a significant development in her practice. Her range of brushstrokes expanded to include geometrical forms, such as circles, squares and long lines, as well as allusions to more recognisably organic shapes, including palm fronds and tall grasses. Her paint application also became heavier and more textural in places, and she began creating mixed-media works on board that incorporated layers of collaged paper. Drexler described her work of this period as ‘very organic; very closely related to landscape and still life’, which is reflected in titles such as Before the hill (1964), Northern sun (1964) and Consorting blossoms (1964).

While the artist’s canvases rely on layers of oil paint to create overlapping and interlocking shapes, her mixed-media collages translate this into a more immediate process, creating formal dialogues and interruptions through the collaging of other materials. Here, the artist extends the idea of ‘push and pull’ into a realm outside of purely pictorial space, as collaged elements seem to rise out of a plethora of daubs and shapes. In Floral abundance (1964), for example, long sweeps of pink paint sit alongside strips of brown paper, creating a radial effect that interjects, and is interjected by, a myriad of ovals, squares and rectangles. Some areas are filled with tiny, overlapping pieces of paper that resemble the swatches of her earlier paintings, whereas others are filled with large, unadorned geometric forms. Although the work remains highly abstract, tube-like shapes appear to echo the stems of plants, with the cut-out paper tesserae suggesting carpets of leaves or petals. The artist’s almost compulsive application of elements seems to speak more directly to the autonomous, intractable patterns of the natural environment.

After Drexler and Hultberg separated in 1983, Drexler relocated permanently to Monhegan Island, becoming an active member of its small artistic community. Like many women artists of the period, her work was overshadowed on a wider, international stage by that of her husband, and she often described herself as ‘a handmaiden to the genius’. Although she had several solo exhibitions throughout her career, she became disenfranchised by New York and the art scene there and was fearless and resolute in her decision to pursue an artistic route independent of shifting art currents. Although her work can be understood within the framework of the second-generation Abstract Expressionism to which her peers belonged, she also remarked: ‘I believed in [Abstract Expressionism] for them, but I never believed in it for me’. She continued to paint amidst the rugged, solitary conditions of the island, living without water or central heating, until her passing in 1999.

Lynne Drexler (1928–99) was born in Newport News, Virginia, and lived and worked in New York City and Monhegan Island, Maine. Her solo exhibitions include Berry Campbell, New York (2022); Mnuchin Gallery, New York (2022); Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York (2022, 2007, 2002, 1987 and 1986); Monhegan Historical and Cultural Museum and Portland Museum of Art, Maine (2008); Jameson Modern, Portland, Maine (2007); Greenhut Gallery, Portland, Maine (2005); Lupine Gallery, Monhegan Island, Maine (2003 and 1998); Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine (2003); Gallery 6, Portland, Maine (1994 and 1989); Judith Leighton Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine (1989); Gallery 127, Portland, Maine (1989); Middlesex College Community College, Piscataway, New Jersey (1984); St. John’s University, New York (1984); Aldona Gobuzas Gallery, New York (1983); Veydras Limited, New York (1983); Alonzo Gallery, New York (1975, 1973 and 1971); Nuuana Valley Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii (1967); Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles (1965); and Tanager Gallery, New York (1961).

Drexler’s work is held in public collections across the US, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Bates College, Lewiston, Maine; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; and Monhegan Museum, Maine.