Untitled [standing female nude with right leg on platform] 1955 - 1967

This drawing by Richard Diebenkorn is made with dark grey pencil lines on off-white paper, it captures the essence of a standing female nude. I imagine Diebenkorn circling around the figure, trying to capture her weight and stance with a kind of restless energy. You can see this in the frantic, scribbled strokes. He’s not trying to create a perfect likeness, but searching for something more fleeting and elemental. It reminds me of the way Giacometti used line to suggest volume and space. Look at the way the dark lines build up, especially around the head, shoulders, and legs. It's almost like he's sculpting the figure out of shadow, creating a sense of depth and mass with such simple means. This drawing feels like a moment of intense looking and feeling, translated into a language of marks on paper. It’s a reminder that drawing is about seeing, thinking, and feeling all at once.