Untitled [head of a woman] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing, ‘Untitled [head of a woman]’ with ink on paper. There's a lovely looseness and playfulness to it. I can imagine him working quickly, letting the ink flow, and seeing what emerges. The bold strokes that define the woman's features, her hair, even the earring, they're not just descriptive, they're expressive. You can feel the artist's hand moving across the paper, almost dancing. What was he thinking when he made this? Was he trying to capture a likeness, or something more? Diebenkorn, like many of us painters, often moved between figuration and abstraction, and I see this push-pull here, a dance between representation and pure mark-making. I think about other artists too, like Twombly, or even Matisse, who were all trying to find ways to make marks that were both direct and evocative. It's an ongoing conversation, this thing we call painting, and artists are always borrowing, stealing, and riffing off each other. There's no final word, just a constant back-and-forth, an exchange of ideas.