Untitled [seated nude with her leg bent and hand to mouth] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a seated nude, sometime in the mid to late twentieth century. I’m struck by the confidence in his line. It feels like he’s not trying to get it "right," but rather using the process of drawing to discover the form. Look at the way the ink sits on the paper. It’s immediate and direct. The varying pressure in his marks really animates the whole figure. Some lines are thick and bold, defining the contours of her body, while others are thin and tentative, suggesting shadow or the softer curves of her flesh. There's a real tension between abstraction and figuration. The drawing flattens the figure, yet the pose is intimate and vulnerable. It reminds me a little of Matisse, who had that amazing ability to capture the essence of a form with just a few, well-placed lines. And, like Matisse, Diebenkorn shows us that drawing is not just about representation, it's also about feeling and seeing. It's about the pleasure of the line itself.