Drexler 2023 — Meredith Ward Fine Art

Lynne Drexler: The Monhegan Island Years

May 12 - July 28, 2023

Press Release | Online Catalogue | View All Selected Works

Abstract still-life with vases, flora, and a fish-shaped item in various colors.

Play Fish, 1991
Oil on canvas
36 x 38 inches

Abstract painting of green dots, curving yellow lines, and red-brown bands across the canvas.

Trunk Grass, 1980
Oil on canvas
30 x 36 inches

Abstract still-life of a brown rake and coral pitcher with flora on a patterned background of greens, oranges, and browns.

Raked Off, 1989
Oil on canvas
36 x 31 inches

Abstraction of curving lines and circular and rectangular blocks of yellows and pinks.

Burst Sun, 1970
Oil on canvas
24 x 29 inches

Still life of a green candles and a pink pitcher on an orange table with multicolored flora backgrounded by bright orange and teal.

Ensconced, 1987
Oil on canvas
36 x 30 inches

Painting of the garden with red flowers at the side of a green house against a blue sky.

Again Harmony, 1995
Oil on canvas
10 x 12 inches

About the exhibition

Meredith Ward Fine Art is pleased to present Lynne Drexler: The Monhegan Island Years, an exhibition of 13 paintings and 3 drawings from the 1960s to the 1990s which will be on view from May 12 through July 28, 2023. The exhibition is drawn largely from the collection of the artist Jerry Vis, a friend of Drexler's on Monhegan Island.

Beginning in 1963, Drexler spent summers on Monhegan Island with her husband, the artist John Hultberg. After their marriage broke up, Drexler remained on Monhegan for the rest of her life and became an active member of the small community there. Her early abstract works with titles like Burst Sun and Broken Shadows, capture her experiences of the organic world - light and shadow, night and day – in broken brushstrokes that form her signature tapestry-like surface. Drexler's later work is similarly rooted in the ordinary subjects she found in the world around her: a rake (Raked Off, 1989); the corner of a garden (Again Harmony, 1995) or fallen tree trunks (Trunk Grass, 1980). The monumental painting Play Fish, 1991, combines aspects of a traditional still life with the bright colors and intricate patterning that characterized her work.

Artist Jerry Vis got to know Drexler on Monhegan Island, and over a period of twenty years, they developed a deep friendship. Vis was captivated by her work. He became an avid collector, recognizing Drexler’s importance long before her death revealed her work to a wider audience.

Learn more about Lynne Drexler & Jerry Vis:

Paintings by Lynne Drexler from the Collection of Jerry Vis