Untitled [reclining nude resting her head on her right hand] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a reclining nude, sometime in the 20th century, we don't know exactly when. It's all about the gesture here, a kind of dance between the figure and the space around her, the push and pull of dark ink on light paper. Look at the texture! It’s not just a smooth wash; you can practically feel the bristles of the brush dragging across the surface. The ink is applied in layers, sometimes thick and opaque, sometimes thin and transparent, building up a sense of depth and volume. See how the strokes around the figure's head almost look like swirling clouds, or maybe the inside of her mind? The marks have this real physicality, a sense of the artist's hand moving across the paper. It’s like Diebenkorn is thinking through the act of drawing itself. This approach reminds me of Willem de Kooning, especially the way he used drawing to explore the boundary between abstraction and representation. Both artists embrace ambiguity, inviting us to see multiple possibilities within a single image.