Among Monhegan Island’s early abstract painters, Lynne Drexler (1928–1999) holds a special place. This exhibition of 50 works presents the first comprehensive overview of her career. She began her career in New York with abstractions based on nature and classical music and culminated with more representational images drawn from her experiences of island life. The colorful and vibrant works on view include paintings, drawings, and photographs, among them five Drexler works from the Museum and loans from private collections and her estate. The exhibition is organized by the Monhegan Historical and Cultural Museum Association, Monhegan, Maine.

Maine Sunday Telegram feature story 12/7/08.
Lewiston Sun Journal review 12/17/08.

Lynne Drexler (1928–1999),Misting, 1961, oil on canvas, 62 x 62 inches. Portland Museum of Art. Gift of Harry T. Bone and Barbara and William Manning, 2004.3.

This special exhibition highlighting works of art acquired by the Museum in 2008, features more than 25 paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints. The architecture of Maine and New England appears as a theme in many acquisitions made during the past year, including photographs by Jack Montgomery, Claire Seidl, Charles Litchfield, Clarence White, and Ralph Steiner, and works on paper by Asa Chaffetz, Henry Kallem, Tim Lawson, and Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott. Other collecting highlights include a major oil by Morris Kantor, a sculpture and related drawing by Gretchen Lucchesi, pen and ink sketches and a related monoprint by Susan Amons, prints by Rockwell Kent, a recent lithograph by Will Barnet, and a group of works purchased in memory of printmaker Dorothy Hay Jensen.

Tim Lawson, Study for From Feathers to Feed, 2008, graphite and charcoal on paper, 28 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches.