Untitled [seated female nude resting her left arm on a stool] 1955 - 1967

This drawing of a seated nude, resting her left arm on a stool, was made by Richard Diebenkorn. It is a flurry of charcoal lines, restless, searching. I imagine him circling the model, squinting, his hand itching to capture the essence of her pose. I sympathize with Diebenkorn's struggle; it's not easy. He is trying to get at something both there and not there – the weight of the body, the way light falls, the sitter's inner thoughts, perhaps? Look at how the lines vibrate with energy, building up to a darker tone in some areas, fading away to almost nothing in others. See how the line travels and traces? He isn’t trying to capture a perfect likeness; he's mapping out a feeling, an experience. This is a conversation between the artist, the model, and the charcoal itself. You can sense Diebenkorn’s presence, the mark of his hand. His drawings speak to the history of seeing and mark-making which can be found in the work of Matisse and so many others. In art, it is always call and response.