Untitled [seated woman reading] 1955 - 1967

This is a drawing by Richard Diebenkorn, of a seated woman reading, and you can see the graphite sort of zipping all over the page. The tone is muted and subtle, a lot of grays and blacks that define the forms, but you can also see Diebenkorn’s erasures and pentimenti showing the working process. I can imagine him making this drawing, maybe in the morning light, squinting at the figure. The scratchy marks feel like a way of thinking through the subject, trying to capture the feeling of the moment, the way the light falls on the page. It reminds me of Fairfield Porter’s domestic scenes, but with a kind of edgy, almost anxious energy. Look at the way he renders the book, the way it almost merges with her shirt. There is a strong feeling of form and depth, but not the whole story, not the perfect answer. I think about how artists look to one another, finding inspiration and kinship across time. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing and feeling and responding to the world around us.