Untitled [view of a reclining female nude from a low angle] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a reclining nude with what looks like graphite on paper. I think he must have been sitting on the floor, looking up. There’s something so immediate and intimate about drawings like these. You get the sense of him being in the room, the model in a relaxed state. It’s like he’s capturing a moment of reverie. It feels like the artist is thinking aloud and each line is a question: how does the light fall? What’s the essential form? The thin lines feel like an attempt to capture a fleeting glimpse. Looking at this drawing, I feel part of a conversation that extends back through time, connecting me to Diebenkorn, to his subject, and to the long history of artists who have explored the human form. And it reminds me that art is an ongoing process, filled with questions, experiments, and possibilities.