Untitled [abstraction] [verso] 1955 - 1967

This untitled watercolour was made by Richard Diebenkorn at an unknown date. The dominant colours are black, blue, and a kind of fleshy pink, applied with expressive brushstrokes. I wonder what it was like to make this? I can imagine Diebenkorn in the studio, pushing and pulling the paint across the surface, searching for a form or a feeling. See how the black shapes loom against the blue sky? They remind me of heads, or maybe strange mechanical creatures. The paint is thin, almost translucent in places, allowing the white of the paper to peek through. It feels like a fleeting moment captured on paper, a thought or a memory half-formed. Diebenkorn was deeply influenced by other painters, like Matisse, but he forged his own path, blending abstraction with figuration in a way that feels both familiar and utterly unique. This is how artists engage in a conversation across time, each one building on what came before. Painting is all about uncertainty, and embracing multiple ways of seeing the world.