Untitled [two figures] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing with ink on paper, and it's a great example of how something seemingly simple can hold so much. The stark black ink against the pale paper creates a strong, immediate impression. I can almost see Diebenkorn at work, quickly moving the brush, letting the ink flow and pool to create these figures, or maybe they're just shapes suggesting figures. The lines are so expressive – some thick and bold, others thin and tentative. There's a tension between abstraction and representation that I really dig. Like, are they people? Are they objects? It’s like he's asking us to participate in the act of seeing, to bring our own interpretations to the table. Diebenkorn’s work always feels like a conversation, with himself, with us, and with the history of painting itself. He was clearly looking at Matisse, maybe a little de Kooning too, but he brought his own voice to the mix. It’s a reminder that artists don't work in a vacuum. They build on what came before, adding their own spin, and keeping the conversation going.