Rosalyn Drexler

Rosalyn Drexler
Born Rosalyn Bronznick
(1926-11-25)November 25, 1926
Bronx, NY, United States
Nationality American
Known for Painting
Notable work Marilyn Pursued by Death, 1963
Movement Pop Art
Spouse(s) Sherman Drexler (1925-2014)

Rosalyn Drexler (born 1926) is an American artist, novelist, Obie Award-winning playwright, and Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, and former professional wrestler. Although her early work was in sculpture, she was better known for her multimedia pop culture assemblages of found objects and her paintings, which included found images.[1] Recently, her work has received renewed critical attention and a retrospective exhibition of her career opened at the Rose Art Museum in February 2016.

In 2016, Drexler lives and works in Newark, New Jersey.

Rosalyn Drexler is represented exclusively by Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.[2]

Early life

Drexler (née Bronznick) was born in 1926 in the Bronx, New York.[3] She grew up in the Bronx and East Harlem, New York. Drexler had considerable exposure to the performing arts as a child, attending vaudeville acts with her friends and family.[4]

She attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City where she majored in voice.[1] She attended Hunter College for one semester only before leaving school to marry figure painter Sherman Drexler in 1946.[5] She is the subject of many of her husband's paintings.[6] Together, they had a daughter and a son.

Professional Wrestling Career

In 1951 the Drexlers lived near Botner's Gymnasium where a number of female professional wrestlers practiced. Drexler became interested in this and pursued a brief career as a professional wrestler under the name "Rosa Carlo, the Mexican Spitfire."[7] She went on tour around the country, but returned home after encountering racism in the southern states. Andy Warhol made a series of silkscreen paintings based on a photograph of Drexler from her wrestling days.[8] Drexler's experience as Rosa Carlo later formed the basis of her 1972 critically acclaimed novel To Smithereens, which was the basis of the 1980 film Below the Belt.

Artistic career

Drexler began making found-object sculptures for display in her home while living in Berkeley, California where her husband was finishing his art degree. The sculptures were plaster accretions, built around found scrap metal and wood armatures, and reflected the informal Abstract-Expressionist-influenced Beat sculpture of the time.[4] In 1955, Drexler exhibited her first works alongside her husband's paintings.

At the urging of dealer Ivan Karp, she continued to exhibit after the couple moved to New York City. One critic called these early works "ridiculous and nutty" sculptures that revealed a "real beauty beneath their I-don't-care attitudes."[9] Her works were shown in New York in 1960 at Reuben Gallery, at which she participated in Happenings.[10] Her work was praised by David Smith and Franz Kline of the New York School. However, the Reuben Gallery closed after a year, and Drexler was not able at first to find another outlet for her work.

By 1961, Drexler switched to painting, developing her work from assemblage to Pop Art.[11][12] She search through old magazines, posters, and newspapers to source imagery for her paintings. Her self-taught process consisted of blowing up images from magazines and newspapers, collaging them onto canvas, and then painting over them in bright, saturated colors. With her use of popular imagery in her art, she became an early adherent of the Pop art movement.

Drexler signed with Kornblee Gallery, where she had solo shows in 1964–1966. In January 1964 her work was included in the "First International Girlie Exhibit" at Pace Gallery, New York. She and Marjorie Strider were the only two women Pop artists included in this exhibition, which also featured Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Tom Wesselmann. Drexler exhibited collages cut and pasted from girlie magazines. The work scandalized some, but her paintings were mostly well received. One critic noted, "Miss Drexler's collage paintings…fly through contemporary life and fantasy with a virtuosic, uninhibited imagination that is refreshingly direct in its frank expression of brutality, desire, pathos and playfulness."[13]

Drexler's paintings continued to enjoy favorable reviews and were exhibited in major Pop art exhibitions throughout the 1960s. She did not gain the level of recognition of many of her male peers; the major themes in her paintings—violence against women, racism, social alienation—were controversial topics in a genre known for being "cool" and detached.[14]

Drexler's Pop paintings have been identified more recently as early feminist artworks, although Drexler objected to this categorization, denying any deliberate political message in her work.[15] In spite of this, in 1968, Drexler signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[16]

Major Themes & Works

As well as drawing from her own experience, Drexler's work often revolves around women's roles as portrayed in pulp cinema, including women as moll, femme fatale, home wrecker- those in need of "moral comeuppance".[17] Her images were drawn from easily understood public media.

Her The Love and Violence series is a body of paintings that depicts abusive relationships between men and women. The canvases evoke the covers of pulp fiction novels, B-movie posters, and scenes from gangster films or film noir.[18] Works such as I Won’t Hurt You (1964), This is My Wedding (1963), and Rape (1962) depict sexual violence against women. While the men depicted are most often the abusers, in some paintings, such as Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) and Dangerous Liaison (1963), the dynamic between the male and female subjects is left more indeterminate. Other works in this series include The Bite (1963), Love and Violence (1965), and Baby, It's Alright (1963).

Is It True What They Say About Dixie? (1966) was inspired by a newspaper photo of Bull Connor, the police chief who instigated the Birmingham race riot of 1963, leading a group of white supremacists. The figures advance towards the viewer dressed in black suits against a stark white background. The painting, with a title taken from an American popular song, acts as an ironic commentary on the racial violence of her time.[19] Similar in composition and intent is the painting F.B.I. (1964) that both glamorizes the depicted government agents and questions their status as figures of authority.

The Men and Machines series, showing working men with various types of mechanical equipment, portrays Cold-War era images of technological advancements and plays on the cliché of machines as phallic symbols of male sexual power. Paintings in this series include Pilot to Tower (1966). Marilyn Pursued by Death (1967) is an image of Marilyn Monroe being followed by a male figure. Although "Death" appears to be a stalker or member of the paparazzi, the photograph after which the painting was made makes clear that the man is actually her bodyguard.

Paintings made after movie posters include King Kong aka The Dream (1963), modeled after the lobby card for John Lemont's 1961 film Konga, and Chubby Checker (1964), based on the poster for 1961 movie musical Twist Around the Clock.

Selected Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965-64

1965

1966

1967

1970

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1984

1987

1991

1992

2001

2007

2010

2010-11

2012

2012-13

2014

2014-15

2015

2016–2017

Selected Public Collections

Books

Novels

Adapted Screenplays

written under the pseudonym Julia Sorel

Plays

Published work

Productions

Film and Television

TV

Film

Awards

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 Sachs, Sid (2010). Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968. Philadelphia: University of the Arts. pp. 162–72. ISBN 9780981911922.
  2. ↑ "Rosalyn Drexler". Garth Greenan Gallery. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  3. ↑ John Yau, "In Conversation: Rosalyn Drexler with John Yau" the Brooklyn Rail, July–August 2007.
  4. 1 2 Siegel, Katy (2016). Rosalyn Drexler: Who Does She Think She Is?. New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co. ISBN 9781941366097.
  5. ↑ Roberta Fallon, "You couldn't have known my work. How could you?" the artblog, March 27, 2004.http://theartblog.org/2004/03/rosalyn-drexler-you-couldnt-have-known-my-work-how-could-you/
  6. ↑ "Her husband, a figure painter, considers her his only model—and 'that's the way it had damed well better be,' said Mrs. Drexler." Excerpt from Grace Glueck, "Hip Heidi," The New York Times, April 25, 1965. See also "Sherman Drexler. Art Paradise: Fifty Years of Painting. January 13-February 12, 2005" Press release, Mitchell Algus Gallery, 2005. http://mitchellalgus.com/pr/sdrexlerpr05.html
  7. ↑ Roni Feinstein, "Strangers No More," Art in America, June/July 2007, p. 177.
  8. ↑ Bradford R. Collins, "Reclamations: Rosalyn Drexler's Early Pop Paintings, 1961-1967," in Sachs and Minioudaki, Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, New York and London: Abbeville Press, 2010, p. 164.The photograph was not taken by Warhol as indicated by Collins.
  9. ↑ V.P. "Nine [Tanager], " ARTNews, Summer 1961, p. 18.
  10. ↑ L.C. "Three More Faces of Eve: Rosalyn Drexler," ARTNews, March 1964, p. 64. See also Bradford R. Collins, "Reclamations: Rosalyn Drexler's Early Pop Paintings, 1961-67" in Sachs and Minioudaki (2010), p. 164.
  11. ↑ Axell, Evelyne, and Angela Stief. "Rosalyn Drexler." Power up - Female Pop Art: Evelyne Axell, Sister Corita, Christa Dichgans, Rosalyn Drexler, Jann Haworth, Dorothy Iannone, Kiki Kogelnik, Marisol, Niki De Saint Phalle ; Kunsthalle Wien, 5. November 2010 Bis 20. Februar 2011, Phoenix Art. Köln: Dumont, 2010. 129.
  12. ↑ Elaine de Kooning with Rosalyn Drexler, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? Eight Artists Reply. Dialogue," ARTnews, January 1971.
  13. ↑ J.J., "Rosayln Drexler and Tom Doyle [Zabriskie; April 15-May 4]" ARTNews, April 1963, p. 14."
  14. ↑ Bradford R. Collins, "Reclamations: Rosalyn Drexler's Early Pop Paintings, 1961-67" in Sachs and Minioudaki (2010), p. 162.
  15. ↑ Rosalyn Drexler, as quoted in Bradford R. Collins (2010), p. 166.
  16. ↑ "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 New York Post
  17. ↑ Sid Sachs, reviewing Rosalyn Drexler in POWER UP: Female Pop Art. Kunsthalle Wien, Gargosian Gallery (Dumont Publishers) - p129.
  18. ↑ Collins (2010), p. 166.
  19. ↑ Jorge Daniel Veneciano, "Rosalyn Drexler and the Ends of Man," in Rosalyn Drexler and the Ends of Man, exhibition catalogue, Paul Robeson Gallery, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2006, pp. 16-18.
  20. ↑ "Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden". Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  21. ↑ "Walker Art Center". Walker Art Center. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  22. ↑ "Whitney Museum of American Art". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  23. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/commencementprog2007univ/commencementprog2007univ_djvu.txt

External links

External links

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