Untitled [reclining female nude with figure in doorway] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this unnamed ink wash drawing of a reclining nude sometime in the middle of the twentieth century. What strikes me is how the black ink is coaxed to perform with remarkable fluidity. It’s like he’s using ink to think, feeling his way around the form with each brushstroke. Look at the way the light floods the woman's body against the deep shadows of the room. The strokes are confident, almost gestural, but they build up a sense of volume and weight. I love how the lines around her hip and thigh are both descriptive and abstract, somehow capturing the essence of the figure without getting bogged down in detail. There's a tension between representation and abstraction that feels very contemporary. You can see Diebenkorn's engagement with artists like Matisse, but he's doing his own thing here. It’s less about capturing a likeness, and more about exploring the possibilities of line, tone, and form. It's like he's inviting us to participate in the act of seeing, to make our own connections and find our own meanings within the work.