Untitled [seated nude looking to her right and down] [recto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this line drawing of a seated nude, sometime during his career. Those lines are pretty energetic, right? The contour almost vibrates. I love how they're searching, not overly defined. You can really imagine Diebenkorn circling the form of the figure, trying to nail it down, but also allowing it to be not-quite-there. It makes me wonder what he was thinking about. Was he thinking about Matisse? About the Fauves? I can really imagine him in the studio, charcoal in hand, totally focused, head cocked, looking at the model, then back at the page. There's such a conversation happening when artists make observational drawings. I think about all the artists who have sat and drawn the figure over the centuries, each adding their voice. It’s like a visual game of telephone, each one interpreting and responding to what came before. Pretty cool, huh?