Untitled [woman with hands clasped] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a woman with hands clasped, using crayon on paper. It's a study in process, a beautiful example of how an artist thinks through line. Look at the way the crayon sort of skips and jumps across the surface, leaving a trail of broken marks. The lines are so confident, so sure of themselves, yet they never quite close or fully define the form. It's like Diebenkorn is feeling his way around the subject, mapping out the contours of her body with a kind of tender hesitancy. The texture isn't concealed, it embraces the physicality of the medium. Notice that one dark, dense stroke right between the legs. It's so direct, so unadorned. And it really gets to the core of the matter. This relates to the piece as a whole because the image as a whole is just like that, unadorned. Diebenkorn's work always reminds me of Matisse, that same love of line, that same willingness to leave things open and unresolved. Art is an ongoing conversation, a constant process of exchange and reinterpretation.