Untitled [side view of seated woman] [verso] 1955 - 1967

Here we have a charcoal drawing on paper by Richard Diebenkorn. It's called "Untitled", but it depicts a seated woman, seen from the side. The first thing I notice is the sureness of the line, a kind of confident wandering that feels both descriptive and exploratory. There's a real sense of process here, of the artist thinking through the charcoal. Look how the lines define the form but also exist independently, almost like a roadmap of his looking. The charcoal is applied with varying pressure, creating a rich range of tones and textures, while the bare paper shimmers through. Diebenkorn’s use of line here reminds me a bit of Matisse - that idea of drawing as a direct, uncluttered conversation with the subject. Of course, Diebenkorn takes it somewhere else entirely, he’s always finding his own way of seeing. It's this ongoing conversation between artists, each building on what came before, that makes art so endlessly fascinating, isn't it?