Untitled [nude seated on studio floor] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a seated nude, sometime in his career. It looks like the kind of drawing you do to try and loosen up, or maybe it's just what he did to relax after a long day. The woman is rendered with such a frantic energy, it’s all nervous lines and blotchy shadows. Look at the way he’s massed the dark ink around her face and torso, so intense, almost like she is hiding. I love the way the scratchy lines describe her form, and how those lines are offset against the subtle washes of grey. It reminds me a little of Willem de Kooning, both of them making a virtue out of a kind of anxious energy. The work is not about capturing her likeness but about the pure act of seeing, feeling, and translating that onto paper. It's this quality that makes the image so engaging, so alive.