Untitled [nude with her left arm raised] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn sketched this nude drawing in pencil sometime during his career. The human figure, particularly the female nude, had a complex role in the history of Western art and society. From ancient Greece to the Renaissance, the nude was used to express ideals of beauty, heroism, and divinity, but they also served to communicate culturally specific ideas about gender, sexuality, and power. Diebenkorn was working in the mid-to-late 20th century in the United States, a period in which earlier conservative traditions were being challenged. As such, he had to determine how to relate to this complex history. The loose, unfinished quality of his line rejects the highly polished academic style, in favor of a more modern, less idealized and less objectified representation. This drawing can be seen as part of the broader shift in art towards greater informality, experimentation, and social awareness that occurred in the postwar era. The social history of art can help us understand this shift.