symphonies of color

Many modern artists have perceived deep connections between visual art and music and have even tried to express these in their work. But how many actually brought a portable lap-sized desk to the opera or concert hall and drew in their seats while the music played? Lynne Drexler did. A lifelong passionate devotee of classical music, Drexler (1928–99) would often go to the opera three times a week, and she kept notes on specific performances. Wagner was her favorite composer; others she prized include Mahler, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Borodin. When she drew “from music,” so to speak, it was no literal depiction of performers or scenes that went down on the paper; it was almost always abstract forms that the artist felt expressed the way the sounds affected her. And when she worked the monochrome drawings up into finished paintings, she added color.

Whether abstract, figurative, or a combination of both, Drexler’s art was first and foremost about