Ocean Park #21 1969

Richard Diebenkorn made this large-scale painting with oil on canvas, and, looking at it, I feel like he’s really pushing and pulling color. The blocks are so flat and yet so full of feeling! I can imagine him, brush in hand, thinking, "Where does this yellow want to meet that pink?" It’s a negotiation. It’s like he’s trying to build a structure, but with colors instead of bricks. What I find so resonant is how you can sense the hand of the artist, the way he might have stood back, squinted, and then added just a touch more blue, or dragged that line of ochre just a little further. It’s the kind of conversation only paint can have. Painters, we're always in dialogue, riffing off each other, isn't it true? Each stroke, a note in a long, ongoing discussion. And maybe that’s what painting is, finally: a beautiful, never-ending conversation about how we see, how we feel, and how we can make sense of this world, one brushstroke at a time.