Untitled [nude reclining with her left arm across her belly] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this charcoal drawing of a reclining nude sometime in the 20th century. It’s all about the line here, right? One quick stroke confidently describes the entire curve of the hip. Another, scribbled and frantic, suggests the shaded pubic area. I wonder, was Diebenkorn listening to jazz when he made this? Those confident but quick marks remind me of a Charlie Parker sax solo. I bet he had to make a lot of these to get this one, the kind of drawing that seems so off-the-cuff. I can almost feel the scratch of the charcoal on paper, smudging and sticking, the artist building the body from the ground up. Diebenkorn knew a thing or two about how to get a figure down on paper, but he was always looking, and re-looking, just like us. We can see echoes of Matisse in this work, and other artists who have considered the reclining female form. It's all a long conversation, you know?