Untitled [standing nude with her arms to her sides] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this nude study with charcoal, or maybe conte crayon, and paper. Look at the way the figure is built up out of loose, sketchy marks. It’s all about the process, the act of seeing and responding. You can feel him working through the form. I love the sheer physicality of this drawing. The charcoal is dry and crumbly, sitting right on the surface of the paper. See how some lines are dark and assertive, while others are light and tentative. There's a real push and pull, a back-and-forth between observation and invention. The dark hatching around the stomach area is really evocative. It’s like Diebenkorn is trying to capture the weight and volume of the body with just a few simple marks. For me, this drawing is a reminder that art is an ongoing experiment. In some ways, it reminds me of Philip Guston's late drawings, though maybe a bit more grounded in representation. It's definitely part of an ongoing conversation about how we see and represent the human form.