Untitled [seated female nude with right arm over chair back] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of a seated nude with charcoal on paper. It’s all about the line. I love the economical marks, the way he finds a body with a few strokes. It’s like he’s feeling his way around the form, not trying to nail it, but letting the process of looking and marking guide him. You can almost feel the give and take between Diebenkorn and his subject. The charcoal is dry and crumbly, not trying to hide the hand of the artist. Look at the way the lines waver and double back. There’s a real tenderness in the way he describes the curve of the hip and the weight of the body on the chair. It’s as if he’s trying to capture not just the appearance of the figure, but the feeling of being in a body. For me, this drawing has echoes of Matisse, especially in the way he uses line to suggest volume and space. But Diebenkorn brings his own sensibility, a kind of West Coast cool that’s all his own. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing and responding to the world and to each other.