A veritable bouquet of colour, Lynne Drexler’s Flowering Judas (c.1958-60), with its knitted patterns and painterly blossoms of vibrant hues, is a prime example of the artist’s vivid and sophisticated use of colour. Lush abstractions of flowers and foliage seem to stretch far beyond the canvas of the present work in hues of pinks, reds, greens, golds and blues. Flowering Judas was produced in the years preceding Drexler’s first solo show in 1961 at the prestigious Tanager Gallery, a co-operative whose illustrious members included Willem de Kooning and Alex Katz. It was beginning in 1959 that colour and Drexler’s inventive patch-like brushwork became the primary object, with the natural world serving as her inspiration. An artist who was unafraid, Drexler was bold, inventive, and willing to venture outside of the confines of Abstract Expressionism, continuing to explore the impact of colour and gesture when contemporaries had moved on to Pop and Minimalism. It was during this time that Drexler developed her characteristic exuberant brushstrokes and vibrant palette which has garnered acclaim in recent years, synthesising Post-Impressionist landscape painting with post-war painterly abstraction.

With its distinctive and eloquently rendered array of rich maroons, earthy shades and blossoming bright greens and punchy pinks which leap forward from the surface of the canvas, Flowering Judas articulately demonstrates Drexler’s characteristically jubilant style. Born and raised in Virginia in 1928 as the daughter of a distinguished Southern family, Drexler moved to New York City in the late 1950s. Mixing with the city’s community of avant-garde artists, it is here that she began to establish her distinctive style of crisp, colourful brushwork. Under the tutelage of first-generation Abstract Expressionist’s Robert Motherwell and Hans Hofmann, prominent figures in the New York School, Drexler took up painting full time. Informed by Hofmann’s “Push and Pull” theory, which established a relationship between colour, form and space to achieve the illusion of depth, Drexler’s early work is underlined by a formal approach to abstraction, utilising vivid colours and gestural shapes to animate her compositions.

The iconic patchworks Drexler produced in this period, lush with colour and dynamism, recall the stylistic modalities of Vincent Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt. Yet mentioning these influences in no way diminishes the individuality of Drexler’s oeuvre and signature euphonious style, which culminated in her first solo show at Tanager Gallery, New York in 1961. Inspired by nature, the delicate pink petals of the Judas Tree would be a recurring influence on Drexler, and the tree form which the present work get sits title. Native to Sothern Europe and the Middle East, the Judas Tree carries a myth related to the Bible’s Judas Iscariot, its rich history serving as an intoxicating reference for Drexler.

 
Although Drexler was largely overlooked by her contemporaries, it was not until the artist’s death in 1999 that the magnitude of her work was truly discovered. Often overlooked by the New York establishment, Drexler is now part of a generation of female artist being written back into the artistic canon as a pivotal member of the New York School group for post-war Abstract Expressionists. Finally recognised, Drexler’s work is now housed in the permanent collections of several prominent institutions including the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; the Monhegan Museum, Maine; and Museum of Modern Art, New York. A testament to the significance of Drexler’s early works, a curated exhibition of works spanning 1959 to 1969 was exhibited at the Mnuchin Gallery, New York from the October 27 to December 17, 2022, the significance of Drexler’s work now firmly cemented.

琳恩・德雷克斯勒的《開花的猶大》（約1958至60年作）是一場名副其實的色彩饗宴，花朵般的繪畫色塊同樣豔麗炫目，將德雷克斯勒活潑而繁麗的用色手法展露無遺。在一片片粉紅色、紅色、綠色、金色、藍色的斑斕色調下，抽象的花朵和嫩葉長得茂密繁盛，甚至有往畫布外延伸開去之勢。1961年，德雷克斯勒在著名的紐約譚納傑畫廊（Tanager Gallery）舉辦生涯首場個展，這間著名的畫廊由藝術界中人合辧創立，大名鼎鼎的成員包括威廉・德庫寧和亞歷克斯．卡茨。在1959年開始，色彩和嶄新嘗試的方塊形筆觸成為德雷克斯勒的主要素材，大自然也成為她的靈感來源。德雷克斯勒作風大膽，新意迭出，也樂意跳出抽象表現主義的框框去冒險，正當同年代的藝術家都紛紛轉投波普藝術和極簡主義時，她依然不懈探索色彩和動態畫姿的影響。而恰恰在這段時期，德雷克斯勒逐漸發展出形態茂密的筆觸和斑爛絢麗的用色，將戰後的抽象色塊繪畫糅合至後印象派風景畫之中，其獨有的筆觸和用色在近年為她贏得不少美譽。

《開花的猶大》的畫面灑滿別樹一幟的鮮明色塊，在一大片層次豐富的栗棕大地色調下，蔥翠的亮綠色和奪目的粉紅色在畫布上鮮艷欲滴，完美示範德雷克斯勒歡欣跳脫的特色風格。德雷克斯勒在1928 年生於弗吉尼亞州，出身美國南方顯赫世家的她在家鄉成長，直到1950年代末才移居紐約。在紐約，她與前衛藝術圈的藝術家來往，隨之開始建立其特色風格，筆觸變得明快俐落，繽紛多彩。紐約畫派的領軍人物包括第一代的抽象表現主義大師羅伯特．馬瑟韋爾和漢斯．霍夫曼，在他們的指導下，德雷克斯勒開始投入全職繪畫的生涯。霍夫曼在其「色彩推拉理論」中主張以顏色、形式和空間的關係創造視覺深度，德雷克斯勒深受此理論啟發，在早期作品中明顯偏向形式主義的抽象風格，並運用豔麗色彩和動態畫姿為畫作的構圖注入活力。

這個時期，她筆下的色塊多彩而且充滿動態，令人不禁想起梵谷和克林姆的慣用技巧。然而，即使把藝壇前輩的名字羅列出來，亦絲毫不減德雷克斯勒的獨特之處，她的作品依然個性十足，艷麗而且賞心悅目。1961年，雷克斯勒終於迎來首場個展，在紐約的譚納傑畫廊（Tanager Gallery）展出作品。此作精緻的粉紅花瓣以猶大的自然面貌為靈感，樹上的花瓣一直反復出現德雷克斯勒往後的作品中，而猶大也啟發了此作的標題《開花的猶大》，此樹原產於南歐和中東，背後有一段與聖經人物加略人猶大相關的故事，因此，有著豐富典故的猶大為德雷克斯勒的醉人作品帶來深意。

德雷克斯勒一直得不到同時代藝壇的關注和重視，直到她在1999年去世後，其作品的深厚內涵才真正被世人看見。當初，德雷克斯勒長期被紐約的主流論述忽視，如今她以一代女性藝術翹楚的身份重新被載入藝術史冊，也被視為戰後抽象表現主義中重要的紐約畫派人物。德雷克斯勒重獲認可後，其作品已成為多家大型博物館的永久館藏，包括緬因州波特蘭藝術博物館、緬因州蒙赫根博物館及紐約現代藝術博物館。2022年10月27日至12月17日期間，紐約馬努金畫廊悉心策劃了一場德雷克斯勒展覽，回顧她在1959至1969年之間的作品，印證了德雷克斯勒在藝術史上的地位。