Untitled [female nude adjusting her cap in a mirror] 1955 - 1967

Editor: This piece has this sort of melancholic, end-of-the-day vibe... You know, like she's just taking a moment. Curator: You're likely picking up on the quiet intimacy that Diebenkorn cultivated in his figure drawings. This one, made sometime between 1955 and 1967, is titled "Untitled [female nude adjusting her cap in a mirror]." It’s an intimate portrayal using pencil, or possibly ink. Editor: Ah, "untitled" sort of fits! There's nothing screaming for attention, more of a hushed meditation here. Did he do a lot of nudes? Curator: He did, often depicting women in domestic settings. His work, generally filed under Abstract Expressionism, really engages with post-war femininity and representation. This subject appears almost like she’s caught in a private moment. Editor: Definitely feels like peering into a very personal space. Those soft lines... they suggest she's almost dissolving into the background, blending in with her surroundings. And it's not like a power pose or anything, very unassuming. Curator: Exactly, which invites us to consider how female subjectivity has been historically represented in art, often through a male gaze. What does it mean to see a nude female form depicted so unassumingly, where vulnerability supersedes overt sexuality? Editor: Ooh, food for thought! It's funny, for something that’s essentially a sketch, it feels complete. Curator: Perhaps because it's complete as a statement about being, outside of performative social expectations. The unadorned quality, down to the medium itself, allows the artist and subject to speak candidly. Editor: It makes me wonder what she was thinking as she adjusted her cap, like before stepping back into public or something... What a lovely, fleeting peek into an ordinary moment. Curator: It definitely lingers in the mind, doesn't it? Thank you for lending your perceptive intuition.