Untitled [standing female nude with right hand raised to chin] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this standing nude figure with ink on paper. I'm wondering about the moment when Diebenkorn put brush to paper, committing to each confident sweep of ink. The painting has emerged through mark-making. I sympathize with him, the commitment, each mark being a decision. He seems to have made each line count. The ink is thin, but the marks are bold. There is no shading, but the figure has weight. I love the way the gestural marks work together to suggest both form and light. The dark ink both conceals and reveals. It feels like he's saying, “I see you, and I’m thinking about you.” He is in conversation with other figurative painters. Painters across time are in dialogue with one another, responding to one another's creativity. Painting is an embodied form of expression, allowing for multiple interpretations. We all see and understand the world differently.