Untitled [seated female nude facing left] [recto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled nude drawing with ink on paper; the date is unknown. What strikes me is how Diebenkorn uses such a limited palette - just black ink and the white of the paper - to suggest so much form. It’s all about process; the push and pull between what's there and what's implied. Look at the way he uses these bold strokes to define the figure's contour. The ink isn't precious, it bleeds and pools, giving the drawing a raw, immediate feel. There’s a beautiful ambiguity to it all. Is that dark patch on the head hair? Or shadow? It hardly matters. I can see connections between this drawing and the later Ocean Park series; both share a similar interest in stripping things down to their essentials, finding the poetry in simple gestures. Think of Matisse’s line drawings, too. Art's one big conversation, right? We're all just riffing off each other, trying to figure things out as we go along.