Untitled [seated woman] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this striking ink drawing of a seated woman, probably sometime in the mid-20th century. The sweeping gestural marks, all in blacks and grays, make me think about the act of painting itself, all the shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Diebenkorn here. What was it like, I wonder, to make this? What was he thinking when he made it? The paint is thin, almost watery, and this affects the emotional and intellectual resonances of the work. Look at the way the marks flow from her torso. You can see the movement and the making. It makes me think of other artists, like Matisse, who were also working from the figure, but moving into new kinds of abstraction. Artists are always in conversation, inspiring each other, exchanging ideas across time. Painting is like that, an ongoing conversation, allowing for multiple interpretations.