Untitled [woman seated on an arched-back sofa] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn created this delicate line drawing of a woman seated on a sofa. Her contemplative pose carries echoes of classical depictions of melancholy and introspection. Consider her hand against her head, a motif we find echoed across centuries, from ancient Roman sarcophagi depicting mourning figures to Renaissance portrayals of meditative saints. This gesture speaks to a timeless human experience of contemplation and sorrow. It appears, transformed, even in modern photography, conveying feelings of pensive thought. Perhaps this gesture, passed down through art history, resonates deeply because it mirrors our own subconscious expressions of introspection. It's as if the act of resting one's head becomes a universally understood signal of inner reflection. The powerful emotional impact of the image, therefore, isn’t just in the subject's pose, but also in how it triggers a collective memory. The image reminds us that these visual languages are constantly resurrected, adapted, and imbued with fresh emotional weight. They demonstrate the cyclical progression of visual symbols that re-emerge and transform across time.