Untitled [back view of a female nude in contrapposto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a female nude in contrapposto with what looks like charcoal or maybe a soft pencil. It’s all about the process, right? The way the lines build up, searching for the form. I love how Diebenkorn's marks are so direct, you can almost feel his hand moving across the paper. The weight of the lines varies, some are bold and sure, others are light and tentative. The ones around the shoulder, they give you the sense of a solid, three-dimensional form. And then, look at the way he suggests the curve of her hip with just a few strokes. It's economical, but so full of information. It reminds me of Matisse's drawings, that same sense of capturing the essence of a form with a minimum of means. But, Diebenkorn has his own thing going on, a kind of West Coast coolness. It's like he’s saying, "Here's a body, but it's also just a bunch of lines on a page." And that's the magic of drawing, isn't it?