Untitled [seated nude resting her head upon her right hand] [verso] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of a seated nude, resting her head, with graphite, on paper. What I see in this work, is the magic of process. The layered marks, the pentimenti— those ghostly traces of revisions—they tell a story of searching. Look at the hand supporting the head. See how the lines are reinforced, almost trembling with the effort of finding the right form? The texture of the graphite is so present, it’s almost like you can feel the tooth of the paper. There is a real honesty to the work. Diebenkorn reminds me a little of Matisse, especially in the way he uses line to define form and space. But where Matisse is all about effortless grace, Diebenkorn feels more like a struggle—a beautiful, vulnerable struggle to capture something real. In the end, that vulnerability is where the beauty lies.