Untitled [side view of a seated nude with her left hand at her hair] 1955 - 1967

Curator: Immediately, there's a vulnerability. It feels like an abandoned thought sketched quickly on paper, barely there but heavy with a silent, interior narrative. Editor: Indeed. We’re looking at an untitled pencil drawing by Richard Diebenkorn, likely created sometime between 1955 and 1967. The image presents a side view of a seated nude, her hand at her hair. Consider the limitations imposed by pencil. Curator: Limitations? To me, those stark lines are everything. They highlight form and emotion so directly. You see the gesture, that reaching hand, the bowed head...it's intimacy without fuss. What pencil takes away in detail, it gifts back in raw feeling. I imagine Diebenkorn capturing this figure with quick, decisive strokes. Editor: Decisive, yes, but what does that tell us about his process? Pencil, easily accessible, is a material of everyday life. The drawing then challenges traditional modes of art production, bridging what we conceive as "high art" and simple sketching, especially when the work focuses on something very traditional like the nude. Also note, paper—another mass-produced and available material for anyone to access. Curator: That’s where the tension lies for me. The universal availability of the materials gives rise to an incredibly personal, evocative representation. Like a snatched moment. There's almost an accidental grace. I wonder what he was thinking about, who this woman was, if he knew her or not. Editor: Thinking about that availability allows me to wonder more broadly about art economies of scale and hierarchies; pencil is more democratic than, say, oil on canvas from that same era. We must understand the socioeconomic dynamics of the production and circulation of such artworks. Curator: Maybe, but art whispers to the individual, too. For me, that bent head, the simplicity of the lines...they speak of introspection. Editor: In a world governed by labor, these nuances may get lost amid art historical power structures. Curator: Maybe we each find something different reflected in those simple lines, but that is its real magic! Editor: Well, in that magic lies the artist’s deft skill, and its ability to communicate emotion, even on this humble material, pencil!