Untitled [reclining nude with her right arm raised] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this monochromatic nude, with ink and wash on paper. The washes create a sense of light and shadow, but it's the ink that really sings here. Look at the way Diebenkorn uses it to define the contours of the figure, with a real sense of weight and volume. You can see the artist figuring it all out on the page, trying to pin down exactly how the body inhabits space. I can almost feel the push and pull of the brush. What's so striking is how Diebenkorn transforms a traditional subject into something so deeply personal and modern, almost abstract. You could place it in a lineage with artists like Matisse or de Kooning, but it feels so uniquely his own. It reminds us that every artist is in conversation with those who came before, reinterpreting and reshaping the language of painting.