Untitled [female nude in armchair: front view] 1955 - 1967

This is an undated brush and ink drawing of a female nude in an armchair by Richard Diebenkorn. The composition is strikingly direct, the female nude confronts the viewer with an almost confrontational gaze, the figure rendered with decisive strokes in dark ink. The negative space around the figure and the chair is as important as the drawn lines themselves. Diebenkorn uses line economically, the stark monochrome palette drawing our attention to the formal qualities of the work. The texture of the ink on paper creates a sense of immediacy and the visible brushstrokes enhance the feeling of the artist's hand at work. There is a deliberate ambiguity, a challenge to conventional representation. Diebenkorn destabilizes our expectations. The artist invites us to look beyond the subject matter. Rather, he invites us to consider the structure, the interplay of form and void, and the dynamic tension between the abstract and the representational.