Untitled [portrait] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this portrait with paint on paper, and it's a real study in the power of monochrome. The brushstrokes feel so immediate, like he's wrestling with the image, trying to capture something fleeting. You can see how the paint is both thick and thin, creating these contrasts that give the portrait depth. I wonder what he was thinking, what he wanted to capture from his sitter; there's a sense of uncertainty there, of something in the process of emerging. Look at the way he's handled the hair; these wild, gestural marks that give a sense of movement and energy. And it reminds me a little bit of de Kooning, the way he's not afraid to leave things unresolved. Painting is a conversation, right? We're all just riffing off each other, trying to figure things out. It's exciting to see how artists like Diebenkorn embrace that ambiguity and leave space for us to bring our own interpretations.