Untitled [standing female nude manipulating a small object] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this small drawing of a standing female nude, using what looks like charcoal, maybe graphite. I really feel for the artist here, don't you? It’s so difficult to capture a human form, and you can see him working through it, mark by mark. It is as if Diebenkorn is asking himself with each stroke, what makes this form itself, what makes it this particular woman? Look how the hatching suggests shadow, the build-up of marks defining her shape. The quick, searching lines remind me a bit of Giacometti. There’s a vulnerability here, an honesty in the way he renders her body. I wonder what object she’s manipulating? It looks like she is making something herself. Ultimately, this drawing for me is about the process—the artist trying to grasp something elusive, and the viewer being invited to participate in the act of seeing.