Untitled [side view of a seated man drawing] 1955 - 1967

This untitled drawing was made by Richard Diebenkorn, most likely with a ballpoint pen on paper. It's funny, isn't it? The way a simple blue line can capture so much. It reminds me of my own process: layering, erasing, building up, all in search of something real. Here, the subject, drawing, is also the subject of the drawing. A man is depicted with his pen in hand, drawing a drawing. Look at how Diebenkorn uses the density of the line to create shadow. The scribbled area around his hands versus the clean, spare lines elsewhere. The thin, almost shaky lines capture a sense of immediacy. You can almost see him, hunched over his work, glasses perched on his nose, totally absorbed. He's not trying to be perfect; he's just trying to see, and in that seeing, to understand. This piece reminds me a bit of David Hockney's line drawings—that same sense of capturing the essence of a person or place with incredible economy. Art is a conversation, right? Diebenkorn and Hockney, different voices, same language.