Untitled [woman with face in profile] 1955 - 1967

Curator: This ink drawing, an "Untitled [woman with face in profile]" by Richard Diebenkorn, was created sometime between 1955 and 1967. Editor: The first thing I notice is the economy of line. It’s almost skeletal, revealing the bare minimum to convey form. There's a powerful immediacy. Curator: The drawing possesses a strong element of portraiture, but also something less literal. A certain stoicism in the sitter’s gaze that projects both individuality and a deeper shared female archetype. What do you make of that pose? Editor: Formally, the figure’s averted gaze, coupled with the loose rendering of the body, generates a spatial ambiguity. We're drawn into an active viewing where completion and understanding fall onto us as the viewers. Curator: I wonder if this figure and her gaze resonate because we project onto it, making it universally familiar. Consider too, the psychological weight in profile—a classic symbol suggesting observation or introspection, or a kind of witness, a memory of history unfolding? Editor: Or it's simply the perfect angle for showcasing that strong nose and brow line. In terms of the composition, the face establishes the visual anchor, the loose curves create a sense of implied volume. It almost feels like he worked from light to dark to model the whole thing. Curator: Well, the open lines could represent a state of transition, a fleeting moment of interior thought rendered on the surface of the paper, making visible the unseen energies and emotional interiority of this woman. Editor: Possibly, but I'm also drawn to the almost Cubist fracturing, or at least deconstruction, of form. There's something modern, fragmented, and unresolved that resonates. Curator: So, for you it is unresolved form; for me, it's the embodiment of both a modern spirit and an enduring symbolic form, inviting us to contemplate individual existence in an endless field of shared experiences. Editor: Indeed, seeing it that way changes how I look at it now, acknowledging its cultural resonances makes me appreciate it even more, but what is very evident, still, is the powerful impact of this simple sketch.