Untitled [female head] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a woman’s head with charcoal on paper. There’s an immediate quality to the mark-making that feels like a process unfolding right before our eyes. See how the charcoal is almost dry and crumbly in places, giving the lines a broken, tentative feel? It's not about perfection, but about the searching and finding. The face emerges not from careful rendering, but from a web of lines that suggest form and shadow. Look at the nose, it’s a flurry of marks, as though he’s mapping out the planes of the face, erasing and re-drawing, allowing us to see the thinking behind the drawing. Diebenkorn’s drawing reminds me of Matisse, both artists using line to capture not just the likeness of a person, but also the feeling of being in their presence. There's a warmth and humanity here that transcends mere representation, it's a silent conversation across time.