Untitled [seated woman] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a seated woman, and what hits me is the fluidity. It's like he's not just depicting a figure, but the very act of seeing, or maybe feeling her presence. Look at the dark washes, how they define the form, but also let the light peek through. It’s all about the push and pull, the back-and-forth between what's there and what's not. The legs are particularly interesting to me. See how the brushstrokes suggest movement, almost like the figure is emerging from the paper? You can sense him deciding where to commit, and where to let go. Diebenkorn’s use of stark contrasts echoes the work of the German Expressionist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. But ultimately, Diebenkorn makes it his own. This piece reminds us that art is about searching, not just finding.