Untitled [seated female nude in stockings with right leg over chair arm] 1955 - 1967

Diebenkorn made this nude study with ink on paper. It’s all swooshy, drippy marks. I imagine him working fast, trying to capture the feeling of the pose. I sympathize with the artist's struggle to find the right balance between representation and abstraction. He’s clearly looking at Matisse but doing his own thing. The figure emerges from the paper in broad strokes of thin black ink, confident and searching. There’s a fluidity to it all that I love. You see the chair and the woman's body through a veil. It makes me think about how memory works. How experience is never really solid. That bold stroke defining the leg thrown over the chair arm is great. It almost looks like a signature, a mark that claims the space. For me, a painting is a site of inquiry, a place for the artist and the viewer to explore ideas and feelings. It is exciting to see Diebenkorn doing this here. Artists are always talking to each other. They inspire each other, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.