Untitled [standing female nude with raised right leg] 1955 - 1967

Curator: Looking at this work, it seems incredibly intimate, immediate, yet it holds a specific publicness as part of Diebenkorn's whole artistic project. Editor: Yes, intimate indeed. There's an almost nonchalant confidence in the lines, raw and direct like charcoal under pressure. The drawing on paper really allows for studying the making of this nude figure with raised right leg. Curator: Richard Diebenkorn, working probably between 1955 and 1967, the height of his figurative period, before his turn toward the abstract "Ocean Park" series. What draws me in here is this drawing's challenge of beauty, but also of representing the female form in a space increasingly preoccupied with abstraction and male authorship. The gaze and historical position are vital, aren’t they? Editor: Absolutely. And it also reminds me of labor, frankly. The number of strokes needed, the kind of paper selected, its tooth… These contribute significantly to how we perceive Diebenkorn's work. The medium's very unforgiving. Curator: It is interesting to consider what this sketch might have meant within Diebenkorn's oeuvre at the time. During the era, the pencil line as a medium had very specific political and cultural currency, in light of abstract painting in Europe and US. Editor: I see that. How interesting that it would almost resemble sculpture if you were to give it more than a cursory look. Do you consider Diebenkorn's figuration to exist in dialogue with abstraction? Curator: Definitely. You see hints of spatial ambiguity that prefigure the flatness of the "Ocean Park" series. But perhaps also Diebenkorn is testing the market here and understanding if the culture accepts drawings of nudes…it would be something that definitely impacts sales and museum collecting strategies! Editor: It’s the sparseness I find compelling. You can practically feel the texture of the paper under the pencil. A lot of art in that period tried to convey pure concept and escape materiality so I respect the raw method and final form so well on display here. Curator: Exactly. By placing the work historically, we get a new way to read Diebenkorn’s production as it pertains to shifts in taste and culture, and the complex politics that govern them. Editor: Agreed. I now find myself eager to investigate what kind of pencil he would use in drawings like this and maybe try and mimic his own creative process.