Untitled [female nude with legs drawn into chair] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing, a female nude with legs drawn into a chair, using what looks like charcoal, sometime during his career. See how the lines are both confident and tentative? The charcoal lays down a dark, velvety mark, but the pressure seems to vary, creating a sense of searching. Look at the way he defines the figure with quick, almost scribbled lines, yet captures the weight and form so economically. There's an energy in the way the charcoal skips and dances across the paper, giving the figure a lively, present feeling. The pose is informal, casual even, like a snapshot of a moment in time. Diebenkorn’s work is often associated with abstraction, but his figure drawings, like this one, reveal his deep understanding of form and his ability to distill it to its essence. Like Matisse, he had an incredible sense of line and could suggest so much with so little. It’s a reminder that art is often about the conversation between looking and making, seeing and feeling.