Untitled [seated female nude leaning on right arm and looking right] 1955 - 1967

This is a seated nude made with a crayon on paper by Richard Diebenkorn. The energy in this drawing comes from its hesitant, searching lines, which is all about the process of seeing. The surface is raw, exposed, a testament to the artist's hand and eye at work. The crayon lines are smudged and broken, creating a sense of depth. There's a passage on the figure’s right hip where he's scrubbed at the surface. The network of marks seems like a way of seeing, a diagram of the figure that captures something felt as much as something seen. Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series has this same quality – the sense of a grid dissolving into light. Like Agnes Martin, the line becomes a meditation on space and form. It’s not about perfection, but about the beauty of the searching mark.