Untitled [reclining nude with hands behind head] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a reclining nude, using what looks like charcoal, and a lot of smudging. You can see the way he’s pushed and pulled the charcoal across the surface to create these ambiguous shapes. The way the figure is laid out, so casually, reminds me of some of Matisse's drawings, but Diebenkorn has a scratchier, more nervous line. Look at how the shading behind the figure's head morphs into the background – it's like the figure is emerging from a dark space, or maybe sinking into it. I am drawn to the way Diebenkorn lays bare the artistic process. You can almost feel his hand moving across the paper, adjusting, correcting, searching for the right line. Nothing is too precious here. I am thinking about how, in his later work, Diebenkorn moved towards abstraction, but these early drawings show that he was always interested in the underlying structure of things. For me, the work of somebody like de Kooning comes to mind here; both artists seem to see abstraction and figuration as flip sides of the same coin.