Untitled [seated female nude in high back armchair] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a seated nude with ink on paper. The gestural strokes give us a sense of the artist's process as he worked and reworked the image, searching for a form amidst the flowing lines. The texture is all in the strokes, thick and thin, wet and dry. See the way the ink pools and bleeds, especially around the chair's legs, making the space feel alive and unstable. And notice the quick, scribbled marks that define the face, almost erasing it as they create it. That area in particular feels unresolved, open to possibility. It reminds me of de Kooning's drawings, the way he never settled on a single image but kept pushing and pulling, embracing the messiness of perception. Art isn't about perfection, it's about the ongoing conversation, the endless quest to see and feel.