Untitled [nude resting on her left side] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled nude drawing with charcoal on paper. You can see the mark-making is all about these confident, searching lines. Drawing is such a direct way to process what you see, it’s like thinking out loud. The texture comes from the charcoal itself – that smudgy, almost crumbly feel. Look at the way Diebenkorn suggests the weight of the figure with just a few strokes. Notice the repeated lines around her leg, it’s not about perfection, it’s about finding the form through a process of looking and adjusting. It’s like he's feeling his way around the subject. This kind of reductive approach reminds me of Matisse’s line drawings, or maybe even some of Giacometti’s more sparse works. It’s all about distilling the essence of a thing. This drawing shows how much can be said with very little, and how the act of looking can be just as important as what you’re looking at.