Untitled [female nude seated and looking down] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a seated female nude with charcoal on paper. The ghosted lines and layered marks give the impression of a body caught in motion, or perhaps a series of attempts at capturing the right pose. There's a real sense of searching here, of Diebenkorn feeling his way through the form. The charcoal has a soft, almost powdery texture, smudging easily across the page, but it also allows for moments of sharp definition. Look at the way he's rendered the figure's hands and feet – tentative, but precise. The way one line fades into nothing, while another is pressed down hard. It’s like he’s not just drawing a body, but also mapping out the very act of seeing. This reminds me of work by Giacometti. In both artists the figure is less about solid form, and more about the fluid, ever-shifting experience of perception itself.