Untitled [female nude stepping up on right foot] 1955 - 1967

Curator: Diebenkorn’s ink drawing, "Untitled [female nude stepping up on right foot]," created between 1955 and 1967, arrests my attention. Editor: The pose is undeniably assertive; the ink washes and bold strokes convey an air of strength but also a sense of internal searching. Curator: Absolutely. Diebenkorn captures a feeling of momentary determination, almost like she is gearing up to move into a new and yet unwritten chapter of her life, with a single step. There is no denying it feels incomplete, even experimental. Editor: Notice how the tonal variations achieved through layering of ink establish depth. It creates a dynamic interplay between solid form and implied space. The gestural application, visible through the rapid, spontaneous marks, creates its semiotic field of signification and an interplay of visual forces. Curator: Yes, precisely. There's a tension between the defined contours and the almost abstract treatment of the body. I always felt that with it’s contrasts of shadow and suggestion, he captured the essence of being human. But the nude in art history is, let’s face it, often reduced to merely the visual, whereas Diebenkorn seems to aspire to embody the female form through a sort of abstraction... a reduction down to that simple notion of, say, walking. Editor: And through those reduction we may return to its structural elements: posture and balance, and the implied potential for motion. It seems Diebenkorn is focusing less on mimetic representation and instead highlighting what may represent it—not so much to define femininity, but its physical manifestation. Curator: That makes me see how much of an influence the modernist movement held on him at this time; he focuses, above all, on line. Its the lines that are doing the expressive lifting here, the same lifting she is about to perform with her single step, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Definitely. Looking closely at Diebenkorn’s line qualities really unveils a complex vocabulary where you begin to see line function almost like musculature. Fascinating.