Untitled [young woman in profile, facing left] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a young woman in profile with ink on paper. It’s like he’s feeling his way around her face, finding her features with a kind of tender confidence. The ink is so fluid, it bleeds slightly into the paper, giving a softness to the lines. Look at the way he suggests the curve of her cheek, or the delicate arch of her eyebrow with just a few strokes. There’s a real economy of means here. He captures the essence of her without getting bogged down in details. The negative space becomes as important as the lines themselves. It’s almost as if he’s drawing the air around her, not just her face. This reminds me of Matisse, his ability to distill form to its purest expression. But Diebenkorn brings his own West Coast sensibility to it, a certain lightness and ease. It’s like a conversation between two artists, across time and space, each adding their own voice to the ongoing exploration of what it means to see, and to be seen.