Untitled [nude seated on floor and holding her leg] 1955 - 1967

Editor: This is an untitled nude drawing by Richard Diebenkorn, likely created sometime between 1955 and 1967. It's a pencil or graphite sketch, and it feels very intimate, almost vulnerable, because of the subject’s pose and the rawness of the medium. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The starkness of the pencil and paper forces us to consider the very act of *making*. Diebenkorn uses readily available, almost quotidian materials. How does that impact our reading, versus if this were rendered in oil on canvas, a historically loaded combination suggesting "high art?" This sketch challenges that traditional hierarchy. Editor: I see what you mean. It’s not trying to be precious or polished. The sketchiness makes it feel immediate, like a record of a specific moment. Curator: Exactly. And let’s consider the model's posture – huddled, almost withdrawn. Is it merely an observation, or is there a commentary embedded within on the societal constraints placed upon the female body, viewed through the lens of the male gaze that dominated artistic production during this period? Where was this produced? The location could significantly inflect that interpretation. Editor: That's interesting, the social context makes it less simply representational. I guess it’s about who has the power to represent whom, and with what materials. Curator: Precisely. We have to analyze art through the process and materials of its creation, how it interacts with the cultural machine, not simply isolate it as some rarified object of beauty or skill. Think about it – readily available graphite becomes the medium through which to engage in the complexities of the figure itself. It questions established ideas of value and making. Editor: So it is the everyday that holds greater artistic depth through this drawing. Thanks for highlighting the artistic depth of that relationship, which gave me a completely different point of view. Curator: Glad to offer that perspective!