Untitled [woman seated in a wicker chair] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of a woman seated in a wicker chair with graphite on paper. It’s so raw and immediate, like a thought jotted down, a feeling quickly captured. The lines are restless, searching, never quite settling, as if he’s mapping out not just the figure but also the space around her, the air she breathes. See how the lines around her face are so delicate, yet the chair is almost aggressively angular. Then there are these strange smudges, ghostly presences that add to the overall feeling of a fleeting moment. I love how he's not trying to give us a perfect picture, but rather a sense of something observed, felt, and then gone. It reminds me a little of Giacometti, this sense of a figure struggling to emerge from the ether. It’s a beautiful reminder that art isn't about answers, but about the questions we ask along the way.