Untitled [female nude resting on right knee and looking away] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled charcoal drawing of a female nude, sometime during his career. You can see that the marks are very immediate, like he’s trying to catch a fleeting glimpse of something. It’s that quality of being unresolved, in process, that I find so engaging. Look at how the smudges and hatched lines almost seem to sculpt the figure out of shadow. See the weight of the knee pushing into the ground? The charcoal is so dense there. It’s like he's using the material itself to describe the pressure and the form. It's so clear Diebenkorn is feeling his way around the subject, thinking through the charcoal, and letting the process guide him. This reminds me of Willem de Kooning's drawings. Both artists have this amazing ability to make something so raw and immediate feel so complete. It reminds you that art is about the journey, not just the destination.