Untitled [seated female nude with arms raised] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn created this untitled drawing of a seated female nude with charcoal on paper. The composition, spare and direct, immediately grabs your attention. The artist uses a network of lines, some tentative and faint, others bold and assertive, to define the figure. These lines, intersecting and overlapping, create planes that suggest form. The model's raised arms open up the body, creating a dynamic, almost confrontational pose. The charcoal medium contributes to the artwork’s expressive quality. Notice how Diebenkorn allows the charcoal to smudge and blur, adding depth and shadow to the figure. Diebenkorn’s drawing embodies a raw, immediate approach to representation that seeks to engage with the body not just as an aesthetic object, but as a field of experience. It’s a drawing about process, about seeing, and about translating that vision onto paper. Consider how the artist prompts us to question what we see, and how we see it.