Untitled [kneeling female nude: side view] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a kneeling female nude using what looks like charcoal on paper. It’s kind of amazing how much he gets across with such simple marks. You can see him feeling his way around the form, testing an edge, finding a contour, then leaving it for another. What was Diebenkorn thinking as he looked at the model? Was he trying to capture her likeness? Or was he trying to understand something more abstract about the form? I love how he captured the weight of the figure, how her body presses into the ground. These marks, smudgy and searching, remind me of other artists like Matisse and Giacometti, who also used line to explore the human form. Artists are always looking at each other, learning from each other, and pushing each other to see the world in new ways. The beauty of drawing, like painting, is how it embraces uncertainty, letting the artist and viewer wander through a space of endless possibilities.