Black Club 1981

Richard Diebenkorn made this print, called Black Club, using etching, a technique that allows for such delicacy, like little scratches on the plate. Look at how the three black circles are arranged at the top of a long, slender stem. Diebenkorn is really doing a balancing act. What can be stable? What can be dynamic? The surface is alive with this push and pull. Imagine him in his studio, moving back and forth, adding and subtracting lines, searching for the right equilibrium. You know, making paintings, making prints, is really about thinking—it’s about the way the hand and eye work together to translate an idea into something tangible. Like Brice Marden, he’s committed to process. He uses the black club as an armature, like a trellis, and then builds around it, so it’s not just a shape, it’s an opening. Diebenkorn, Marden, me, you—we’re all looking at each other's work and thinking. It's an ongoing conversation.