Untitled [female nude squatting beside a wall] [verso] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a squatting nude with charcoal on paper. You can almost feel him feeling his way around the figure with the charcoal, like a blind person reading. The lines are tentative, searching, not quite sure of themselves. Diebenkorn is not trying to make a perfect representation, but rather trying to understand the form through the act of drawing. Look at the mass of scumbled marks under her thigh. To me, this area is more interesting than the lines that define the model. It’s like he’s asking, "What does it mean to occupy space?" This kind of searching mark-making is common to many artists who draw the figure, like Egon Schiele. These artists embrace the ambiguity and multiple interpretations that come from the human form. They see drawing as a way of thinking and experiencing the world, rather than simply representing it.