Painted prodigy Rosalyn Drexler, resilient artist who grappled her way into the realm of popular art, passes away at 98 years old.
Rosalyn Drexler, Pioneering Pop Artist, Passes Away at 98
Rosalyn Drexler, a key figure in the Pop art movement of the 1960s, has passed away in New York at the age of 98. Born Rosalyn Bronznick in 1937, Drexler was a prolific artist and writer who defied conventional norms and left an indelible mark on the art world.
Originally from New York, Drexler attended Hunter College for a year before moving to Berkeley, California. It was during this time that she began to explore her artistic talents, exhibiting assemblages made from street junk alongside her husband's work.
Drexler's distinctive style was characterized by her use of high-key color and unusual compositional strategies. By painting over ready-made pictures and surrounding them in fields of blazing color, she defamiliarized these pictures, creating works that were both thought-provoking and visually striking. Her paintings share affinities with some of the most famous works of the Pop era, including those by Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, and Marisol.
In addition to her painting, Drexler had an illustrious writing career. She penned 10 plays and nine novels, many of which contained quirkiness similar to her paintings. One of her novels, To Smithereens, was about the New York art scene and involved a character named Rosa who became a professional wrestler. The book was republished this year to critical acclaim, with the New York Times naming it one of the best books of 2025 so far.
Drexler's writing tended to have a biographical element, with some books centered around a talking dog and a fictionalized version of Rocky from the sports movie franchise. Prior to becoming an artist, Drexler had a brief career as a professional wrestler, training under the name Rosa Carlo the Mexican Spitfire and touring the US for three months.
Following the Rose Art Museum show, Drexler's works were collected widely among US institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum. In recent years, her oeuvre has been reappraised, with her appearing in the 2015 Tate Modern exhibition "The World Goes Pop."
Raphael Rubenstein, in his review of Drexler's 2016 survey at Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum, praised her use of high-key color and unusual compositional strategies. David Smith's positive remarks about her sculptures also encouraged Drexler to continue making art.
In interviews, Drexler expressed feelings of missing the people she could have shared her late-life success with. Despite this, she continued to create and inspire until her passing. Drexler's works will undoubtedly continue to captivate and challenge audiences for years to come.
Unfortunately, the search results do not provide information on the major institutions that acquired Rosalyn Drexler's works in the last ten years.
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