Untitled [reclining woman in undergarments] 1955 - 1967

Curator: At first glance, it feels so vulnerable, almost like intruding on a private moment. A quiet sort of observation. Editor: What a poignant initial read! We're looking at a pencil drawing by Richard Diebenkorn, likely created sometime between 1955 and 1967. The piece is simply titled "Untitled [reclining woman in undergarments]." Curator: Right. I think it is exactly this ambiguity of the title, so seemingly straightforward, that lets the vulnerability of the image to arise so gently. You just get this sense that something private is being reflected here through her body's repose. Editor: And Diebenkorn's choice of medium only adds to that intimacy. The softness of pencil on paper suggests a delicate touch, and quick execution, contrasting at that time with the ascendance of photography that increasingly displaced drawing for realism. It makes one consider what he might have hoped to offer us by sticking to pencil and paper... Curator: Yes, exactly, but there is some urgency as well in these lines that suggests an attempt to capture a fading impression from a fleeting observation. Did he know that woman in that specific pose at the time he sketched this, and he was only just looking for something from the unconsciousness? The mind boggles, doesn't it? I'm only really asking myself the same questions I ask myself with all drawings! Editor: An excellent point. It really pushes against that coldness people can often feel from nudes depicted in grand halls and palaces in paintings and sculpture for centuries... It presents us with a more intimate image than some classical figure for which that person was merely an object on view to satisfy an idea of aesthetic perfection... Curator: Exactly, right! What is at stake, then? That is what I would always ask. Well, and isn't it delightful? What do you reckon it may say in modern society, looking at this very nude in a public institution? Editor: What's compelling is that by not idealizing the figure, Diebenkorn seems to reclaim her humanity in a very radical sense... which creates a strong argument against patriarchal constructs of women in the art world. Curator: That's a really smart interpretation! Thank you for illuminating my thoughts and for bringing us on the stage in front of such art with its subtle but moving undertones! Editor: It's my pleasure; that's why we bring this art to you today so that these beautiful dialogues keep growing forever... Thank you for that final thought.