White Club 1981

This is "White Club", an undated print by Richard Diebenkorn. Look at the way that club sits within the frame, like a memory, half-there, half-erased. I love seeing the ghost of the process, all those lines and shapes that didn’t quite make the cut. Diebenkorn’s mark-making feels so intuitive, like he's feeling his way through the image, letting it emerge from the surface. The texture here, achieved through the etching process, adds a whole other layer of depth. It's not just about what's depicted, but the way the ink clings to the paper, creating these subtle shifts in tone. Take that little circle to the side there, it's almost an accident, but it pulls the eye and adds this weird tension to the whole composition. I see this piece as part of a larger conversation with artists like Robert Motherwell, who were also pushing the boundaries between abstraction and representation. It's about the process and embracing the beautiful messiness of art-making.