Untitled [nude lying back with hands behind her head] 1955 - 1967

Curator: Immediately, I'm struck by the languid, almost confrontational pose. There’s a raw energy in these lines. Editor: Yes, it’s certainly arresting. What we have here is an untitled drawing by Richard Diebenkorn, likely executed in pen and ink sometime between 1955 and 1967. It’s a study of a reclining nude. Curator: The lines themselves feel impatient, urgent. Notice how the darkest strokes concentrate around the model’s core, especially around her groin and stomach. The hands thrown back behind the head…it’s an ancient pose, a posture of submission perhaps, or perhaps defiance? Editor: Formally, the composition directs our eye from the foot with the zigzagging outline up towards the center and then back to the face in top view. The flatness of the picture plane is only broken up with bold lines. Curator: The figure’s pose mirrors the universal “sunbathing” pose; think of Ancient Egyptian solar worship. She presents herself in a posture we instantly recognize across cultures—an open offering. Editor: I see what you mean, but the perspective, so foreshortened and extreme, almost seems to destabilize the figure. There's something deliberately awkward about it. Is it deliberately undermining traditional notions of beauty? Curator: Or is it celebrating the beauty inherent in vulnerability? The artist doesn’t shy away from anatomical realities, yet elevates them. I’m thinking of the “Sleeping Venus” of antiquity. It is the woman’s self-display and simultaneous vulnerability. Editor: Perhaps. And if we analyze how the planes overlap, we will notice this constant play of flat outline and chiaroscuro. Curator: Overall, the drawing manages to distill an emotional weight in the face of what appears to be a mere sketch. The viewer is left feeling intimate towards this nude, almost caught between observer and voyeur. Editor: For me, the value is precisely this apparent artlessness, even randomness of these few lines creating a whole universe for us. It invites us to read beyond the apparent meaning of the motif, while still remaining tied to this motif of human figure in all art history. Curator: It's a powerful, unsettling piece. The image's open gesture belies an aura of mystery that really lingers. Editor: I agree. There’s something captivating in the dialogue between stark representation and interpretive possibility.