New York’s Berry Campbell gallery has announced an exhibition focusing on a pivotal, yet lesser-known, chapter in the career of Abstract Expressionist painter Lynne Drexler. The show, titled Lynne Drexler: A Painted Aria, will explore a period in the mid-1970s when her profound devotion to music became inseparable from her art, leading to a powerful series of canvases driven by her passion for opera.
A Symphony of Color and Sound
In the mid-1970s, Lynne Drexler immersed herself in the world of opera, attending performances at the Metropolitan Opera up to three times a week. Deeply moved by the soaring compositions of Wagner and the emotional power of Beethoven, she began a practice of transforming sound directly into art. Drexler would often sketch from a desk at the opera house as the music unfolded around her, capturing what she described as “the soaring, the gloriousness of the music.”
Her work from this period pulses with a distinct rhythm and motion, as she translated the drama and intensity of the music into vibrant color and form. This approach, which art historian Gail Levin identifies as creating “musical analogies in painting,” has roots in Drexler’s early training with the influential artist Hans Hofmann. The canvases often evoke a sense of synesthesia, with color and form appearing to vibrate in response to sound, a quality that aligns her with artists she admired like Wassily Kandinsky and Vincent Van Gogh.
This intense period of artistic creation was also shaped by personal adversity. A six-month episode of color blindness at the end of 1969 forced Drexler to re-evaluate her practice, inspiring a move toward tonal compositions that redefined the structure and movement in her paintings. For Drexler, opera was not merely an aesthetic inspiration but an “emotional lifeline.” The grandeur of the music provided a triumphant artistic language through which she could process personal challenges. As Levin notes in the exhibition catalogue, these paintings stand as “a testament to her strong will to express herself and move beyond the catastrophic events that nearly derailed her journey.”
The Artist’s Journey
Born in 1928 near Newport News, Virginia, Lynne Drexler initially studied drama, graduating from the Richmond Professional Institute in 1949. After an illness, she pursued art at the College of William & Mary, where she was encouraged by mentors to move to New York. She did so in 1956, enrolling to study with Hans Hofmann. She later studied at Hunter College with Robert Motherwell, who bolstered her confidence that she could pursue a career as a professional artist.
By the late 1950s, Drexler was exhibiting her work and had established her signature style: dense clusters of swatch-like brushstrokes in vibrant, contrasting hues, creating a dynamism that allowed color to triumph over geometry. She was an active member of the Greenwich Village art scene, frequenting the Cedar Tavern and the 8th Street Artist Club’s events. Her first solo exhibition was held in February 1961 at the Tanager Gallery, an artist-run space co-founded by figures such as Lois Dodd and Alex Katz.
In 1962, Drexler married fellow artist John Hultberg and honeymooned on Monhegan Island, Maine, which would become a place of deep significance for her life and art. She began incorporating the island’s rugged shapes and colors into her paintings, working from memory during winters in her New York studio. As the New York art scene trended toward Pop Art, Drexler felt increasingly alienated and exhibited only sporadically in the decades after her first show. She and Hultberg eventually bought the house on Monhegan, and by the early 1980s, she was living there full-time. In the last two decades of her life, her art became more representational, depicting her coastal surroundings, still lifes, and series with dolls and masks. Drexler passed away from cancer in 1999.
Exhibition and Gallery Context
This exhibition builds on Berry Campbell’s 2022 presentation, Lynne Drexler: The First Decade, which surveyed her work from 1959 to 1969. A Painted Aria shifts the focus to the subsequent, transformative chapter of her career.
Opened in 2013 by Christine Berry and Martha Campbell, the gallery has a focused program representing post-war American painters, with a special emphasis on bringing recognition to underrepresented artists, particularly the women of Abstract Expressionism. The gallery is known for its research-driven approach to highlighting artists overlooked due to age, race, gender, or geography.
Lynne Drexler: A Painted Aria will be on view from October 9 through November 15, 2025. An opening reception is scheduled for Thursday, October 9, 2025, from 6 to 8 pm. The exhibition will feature approximately twenty works from the 1970s, including six large-scale canvases.
The show will be accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Gail Levin, Ph.D. In conjunction with the exhibition, Berry Campbell will also host The Metropolitan Opera for an evening of performances at the gallery, with more details to be announced.
The gallery is located at 524 W 26th Street, New York, NY 10001. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 am to 6 pm, and by appointment. For additional information, visit the gallery’s website at www.berrycampbell.com.
