Untitled [two seated female nudes facing right] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of two seated nudes, using brushes and pens to drag the viscous black medium across the paper. The resulting stark contrast captures not only the play of light and shadow on the sitters’ bodies, but also the very speed of the artist’s hand. The immediacy of the work is critical. Diebenkorn was part of a generation that prized direct expression. The Abstract Expressionists, who came before, had made “process” a watchword, and this carried over into other modes of practice. In this work, the gestural strokes and stark ink-on-paper medium, signal a commitment to the artist's hand. You might even say that the drawing documents a performance, with the artist in close dialogue with the figures before him. This approach represents an important shift in the history of art. It’s not just about what is depicted, but how the image came to be made. It's in the seemingly simple act of mark-making that the artwork finds its meaning.