Untitled [nude standing with her hands behind her] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled nude drawing with graphite on paper, and it’s cool to see the bare bones of process laid out so simply. The lines are so tentative, searching, like he's feeling his way around the form. I keep thinking about how, when I draw, there's this back-and-forth between looking and marking, a real dance of perception. Check out how the knees are described with just a few strokes, and how the negative space around the legs kind of defines the shape. It's like he's not just drawing what he sees, but also what he knows about the body. Diebenkorn reminds me a bit of Matisse, in that he's able to capture so much with so little, boiling things down to their essence. And yet, it's still ambiguous, leaving room for interpretation, which is what I love about art.