Untitled [rear view of nude in contrapposto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a nude, en contrapposto, probably sometime in the mid-20th century. It’s all done in graphite, with strong, insistent marks. I can almost feel him making this drawing. He’s really in there, smudging and shading, getting the weight and balance just right. Look at the pressure of the graphite on the page, how the lines vary from light and sketchy to dark and assertive. It’s all about touch, about feeling the form emerge. Diebenkorn’s known for his abstract paintings, but you can see that he's got such a strong understanding of the figure. There’s a real dialogue happening here between abstraction and representation, a conversation that so many painters have taken part in. This drawing feels like it’s part of that big conversation, a way of seeing and thinking about the world through the language of the body. And it's that conversation that keeps art alive.