Andrew Huber
Head of Department
Lot 4
LYNNE DREXLER(1928-1999)
19 May 2022, 17:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$208,275 inc. premium
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Randy Reynolds
Specialist, Head of Sale
LYNNE DREXLER (1928-1999)
Untitled
1959
gouache on paper
signed and dated 1959 on the reverse
19 by 24 3/4 in.
48.3 by 62.9 cm.
1959
gouache on paper
signed and dated 1959 on the reverse
19 by 24 3/4 in.
48.3 by 62.9 cm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Lupine Gallery, Monhegan Island, Maine
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Upon moving to New York in the 1950s to study under Robert Motherwell at Hunter College, Lynne Drexler engrossed herself in the bohemian milieu, living in the Chelsea hotel and taking further classes with Hans Hofmann. She married the artist John Hultberg in the early 60s, but while Hultberg joined the fabled Martha Jackson gallery, Drexler continued to paint without commercial representation. Even though the excellence of Drexler's unique and riotous patchwork abstractions, brimming with color and verve, should have been apparent to any viewer, she continued to be overshadowed by her male counterparts, perhaps quickening the couple's decampment to Monhegan Island, in Maine. There, the artist continued to paint, albeit abandoning much of her earlier style. It was the Monhegan Museum, and curator Tralice Bracy, who discovered much of Drexler's early work in her house on the island, organizing an exhibition at the museum in 2008. Since then, the artist has continued to gain notoriety, at times slowly, but finally joining the canon of other overlooked female abstract expressionists including Grace Hartigan and Yvonne Thomas.
