Untitled [female nude seated on floor near a table] 1955 - 1967

Curator: Immediately striking, isn't it? The confidence in those lines. Editor: It's stark, raw almost. I see the female nude immediately but rendered so economically, with this simple ink drawing technique. There is a real feeling of immediacy. Curator: Exactly! Let's unpack that. What we're looking at is an untitled work by Richard Diebenkorn, created sometime between 1955 and 1967. He used ink on paper, a rather unpretentious choice, but perfectly suited to capturing a sense of spontaneous gesture. The model, seated on the floor, takes up most of the pictorial space along with a strange block or table form on the left, sketched in with just a few confident lines. The figure takes on a sense of gravity within the studio’s process of production. Editor: I see how this work questions the boundary of formal figuration with the means of a spontaneous and almost utilitarian sketch. This really shows the materiality and function of a quick sketch by Diebenkorn; however, he does not necessarily depict what’s at hand as much as capturing an idea through form. I also want to address how that the form becomes somewhat deconstructed at the lower register, breaking into these erratic strokes— almost a way of playing with or concealing the body. Curator: Interesting perspective. Thinking of process, one can easily conjure up the labor conditions required to execute that piece or one like it in Diebenkorn’s atelier, a modernist painter's studio. This work has been made from mass produced material by a privileged maker in service of the modern art system. This helps highlight some of its key contributions to our social, and material conditions. I find that perspective rather compelling. Editor: The drawing has some really compelling tensions at work, particularly around this economy of the medium as a reflection of interior life, captured in such minimal gesture. Curator: True! It reveals an interest in the economy of making. And there we have it – Diebenkorn, raw and beautifully rendered. Editor: A poignant statement through simple means.