Untitled [seated female nude with leg pulled into chair] [rverso] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this sketch of a seated female nude, with charcoal on paper. It's all line, thin and wiry, a bit like Giacometti, and I can imagine Diebenkorn circling around his subject, trying to capture it in one go. There's a real intimacy in the way he renders the figure. I wonder what was going through his head as he was making it? What kind of conversation was taking place between him, the model, and the drawing itself? Each line seems tentative, searching. But then he commits to the mark. He embraces the imperfection of the line and lets it sit there, exposed. It reminds me that painting is never just about representation. It's about touch and gesture and how we experience the world through our bodies. What I love about this work is that it's so open, so vulnerable. You feel like you're right there with Diebenkorn, witnessing the act of creation. It's like he's saying, "Here, this is what it feels like to see and to be seen."