Untitled [seated nude resting her head on her left hand] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a seated nude with charcoal on paper. It looks like he built up the image with these wonderfully smudgy, dark strokes, letting the form emerge through the process. I can almost feel the artist circling around the figure, trying to capture her weight and pose, the charcoal responding to his touch. You can see how the charcoal is thick and velvety in some areas, almost disappearing in others. I imagine Diebenkorn thinking about those old master nudes, like the ones by Matisse, and doing his own version. But in his language, you know? There’s a gestural quality that anticipates his later abstract work. Look at the marks around the head and torso. It is not just about depicting the model, it's about the energy of the lines themselves. It reminds me that making art is an ongoing dialogue, with ourselves, with the materials, and with all the artists who came before us. Painting lets us embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, which is where the magic happens, right?