Untitled [standing nude with her right arm behind her back] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn sketched this ink drawing, titled "Untitled [standing nude with her right arm behind her back]", on paper. Diebenkorn, working within the mid-20th century, often depicted the figure with a kind of detached intimacy. His faceless depiction of a standing nude raises questions about the male gaze and the objectification of women in art. The woman’s posture, with her arm behind her back, hints at a vulnerability, a sense of exposure. Yet, the bold, confident lines of Diebenkorn’s drawing imbue her with a sense of presence, resisting a purely objectified reading. This echoes a tension present in much of Diebenkorn’s work, where the personal and the formal intersect. The drawing, while simple in its execution, encapsulates broader societal gazes and invites us to consider the complexities of viewing and being viewed, of representation and selfhood.