Untitled [woman leaning back on sofa] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of a woman on a sofa with graphite on paper. I love the understated nature of graphite, its simplicity. It allows for such nuance, the soft smudging around her face, for instance. You can almost feel the texture of the paper, can’t you? The way the graphite sits on the surface, creating subtle variations in tone and depth. Look at the repeated lines on the pillow, how they create a sense of volume and form. The lines feel so tentative, so searching. It's like he's feeling his way around the subject, discovering it anew with each stroke. Diebenkorn had a knack for capturing the everyday, and making it feel profound. Think of Matisse and his line, or even Picasso, forever looking for the right way to represent the figure through the language of drawing. There’s so much to see here.