Untitled [seated female nude leaning forward] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of a seated nude, probably sometime in the mid-twentieth century. It’s charcoal on paper, and it’s all about process. Look at how Diebenkorn coaxes the figure out of the page with these energetic marks. The texture is rough and smudged, and you can almost feel the give and take between the artist and the paper. In the face the marks are scribbled, creating a sense of shadow. Those strong, dark lines define the form, but they also leave plenty of room for suggestion. The lines create a sense of depth and volume, but they also flatten the image, pushing and pulling us between abstraction and figuration. Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series comes to mind. There’s a similar interest in line, form, and space, but with a totally different mood. You can see how artists like Matisse, with his fluid lines and bold use of space, might have been an influence. It’s all about the push and pull of looking, questioning, and discovering.