Untitled [seated woman in a dress] 1955 - 1967

This is an undated, untitled pencil sketch of a seated woman in a dress by Richard Diebenkorn. Look at the network of lines, how they build up and suggest form rather than define it. You can almost feel Diebenkorn feeling his way around the subject, correcting, adjusting, and searching for the right marks. The materiality of the graphite is really present, isn't it? The way the pencil drags and skips across the paper, creating a kind of shimmering effect. Look at the way he's rendered the hands clasped in her lap. It's just a tangle of lines, but it perfectly captures the weight and tension of the pose. The lines vary in weight and pressure, giving a sense of depth and volume. Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series, with their layered planes of color, share this process of building and revising, of finding form through a process of exploration. I'm reminded of Matisse, with his loose, gestural drawings. Like Matisse, Diebenkorn is less interested in capturing a perfect likeness than in capturing a feeling, an essence. It's a reminder that art is not about answers, but about questions, and about the ongoing dialogue between the artist and the world.