Untitled [seated nude wearing a sandal and pulling her foot into a chair] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a seated nude in charcoal on paper. Diebenkorn’s mark making is so present; you can almost feel the nubby texture of the charcoal stick. It feels like a sketch, like he’s figuring things out as he goes, adjusting the pose, playing with light and shadow. Look at the way he’s rendered the leg in shadow, how the charcoal is hatched and layered, almost like a woven texture. Then check out the lightness of touch describing her torso. The contrast between the heavy darks and the delicate lines is what makes this piece so dynamic. Diebenkorn went back and forth between abstraction and figuration, and you can see that push and pull here. He shares something with artists like de Kooning, that interest in the body, but also in the abstract qualities of line and form. It's a reminder that art is a conversation, each artist building on what came before, always questioning, always exploring.