Untitled [standing nude with right arm on hip: back view] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this simple ink drawing of a standing nude, with her right arm on her hip, at an unknown date. The approach is wonderfully casual, as if he were just thinking aloud with the pen. The marks have a lovely, uneven quality. The ink varies in tone and there’s a real sense of the hand at work, of the nib dragging and spluttering across the page. Look at that line that defines the right buttock! It's so sure, so confident, but also slightly wobbly, as if the artist is savouring the curve. The arm on the hip is just a few lines, almost a shorthand, but it conveys so much about the pose. The whole drawing feels very immediate, like a fleeting impression caught on paper. It reminds me of Matisse's line drawings, that same sense of capturing the essence of a form with the fewest possible strokes. It's not about perfection, it's about feeling and seeing.