Untitled [side view of a nude seated with her leg over chair arm] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a nude seated in a chair. He’s playing with line here, letting the ink bleed a little, which suggests the way bodies themselves are never quite fixed, always moving, always a bit blurry. There’s something so raw and immediate about the way Diebenkorn uses the ink. It’s not about perfection; it’s about capturing a feeling, an essence. The black ink on the creamy paper is striking, but it’s the drips and splatters that really grab me. Like near the bottom of the chair. That little pool of ink isn’t a mistake, it’s part of the story. It reminds me that art is a process, a conversation between the artist and the materials. Diebenkorn's got that Matisse-like way of seeing the figure as a series of flowing shapes. It's not just about what the body looks like, but how it feels, how it occupies space. And that, my friends, is what makes art so endlessly fascinating.