Untitled [seated female nude holding her elbow] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a seated female nude with charcoal on paper. You can feel the searching quality of the marks as the image comes into being. I imagine Diebenkorn working on this drawing, wrestling with the charcoal, trying to get the weight of the figure just right. He’s thinking about Matisse, maybe, or some other modern master of the figure. He is absorbed in this dance between observation and invention. Look at the way he renders the figure’s downcast gaze: the marks are smudged, as if he’s trying to capture a fleeting moment of introspection. It reminds me that drawing, for Diebenkorn, was never just about representation. It was also about feeling his way through a problem, allowing the medium to guide him. There's something really moving about this kind of vulnerability, this willingness to expose the process of creation. The drawing feels so alive! And that’s what makes art so exciting, right? This ongoing conversation, this exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.