Untitled [female nude seated on a low stool] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a female nude seated on a low stool, and what strikes me is the energy of his marks and how the image appears to emerge slowly as if through a fog. The drawing is not so much about lines that define the figure, but about smudges and hatching that describe tonal modulations. The paper feels like an active space, not just a blank surface; the marks feel provisional, as if the image could change at any moment. Look at the way he renders the light and shadow on the face with diagonal strokes, it is almost like he is feeling around, discovering the form through touch. Diebenkorn was interested in the push and pull between abstraction and representation, and his Ocean Park series seems to take Cezanne's landscapes to another level. Yet, like Cezanne, Diebenkorn suggests that there is no single way of seeing. Art is an ongoing experiment, and we are all invited to participate.