Untitled [head of a woman] [recto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this monochromatic watercolor head of a woman on paper, and it feels like he did it searching for something. The washes of color are transparent, the strokes are quick and searching. You can see the ghost of the pencil underneath. It’s interesting to see how Diebenkorn deploys this fluid medium, letting the watery ink bleed and blend. It’s like he's embracing the accidents, allowing the water to have its say. Look at how he’s suggested the woman’s features with just a few strokes of the brush. There is that one dark swipe that defines the side of the nose, the eyebrow, and then the shadow of the cheek. He did other, more hard-edged and abstract works later in his career but this one feels fresh because it’s unresolved. Like a Cy Twombly work, there is a sense of a journey still in progress. Nothing is fixed.