Untitled [nude turning and looking to her right] 1955 - 1967

This is an undated charcoal drawing by Richard Diebenkorn depicting a nude woman. His gestural marks create a sense of intimacy, yet the model's averted gaze and the obscuring of her features suggest an emotional distance. Consider Diebenkorn's position as a white, male artist working within a historical context that often objectified female bodies. While the drawing engages with the traditional art historical subject of the female nude, it also subtly resists it through its emphasis on the model's subjective experience. The woman's turned head and obscured face shift the focus from passive object to active subject, hinting at her own thoughts and feelings. It’s interesting to consider how the power dynamics inherent in the artist-model relationship are both present and questioned in this work. What does it mean to represent a body, and whose story gets told in the process? This drawing invites us to reflect on these complexities.