Untitled [torso of standing female nude] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing with ink on paper. It's all stark and simple with the black ink against the plain paper. I wonder if Diebenkorn was thinking of Matisse when he made this. I can imagine him, brush loaded, standing back, squinting, and then lunging forward, like a fencer, laying down these lines with swift certainty. Look at the line that sweeps from the shoulder down the arm – it's so confident! You can almost feel the movement in his hand. But then, a drip! Did he curse? Or did he see it as a welcome accident, a little disruption in the flow? The interesting thing about painting and drawing is how each artist responds to the process. We, as artists, are in constant conversation with one another. Each brushstroke adds to the dialogue. I think of the line in painting as a question, a wandering, a searching. There is no wrong answer, only more ways of seeing.