Untitled [standing nude with her left arm held behind her back] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a standing nude with charcoal on paper. You can see how the charcoal sort of crumbles and smudges as it moves across the page. I love that; you get a sense of the hand, the body, and the earth, all in one go. There’s something so direct about the way Diebenkorn lays down these dark lines, almost like he's wrestling with the form. It’s like he’s trying to capture not just the appearance of the figure but its weight, its presence. And look at how the lines around her face and torso are so much more frantic than those describing her legs. It’s like her mind is somewhere else. This reminds me of some of Matisse's line drawings, where he captures the essence of a form with the fewest possible marks. Both artists understood that a drawing isn’t just about replicating what you see but about finding a way to express your own experience of seeing.