Untitled [seated nude pulling her hair] 1955 - 1967

Editor: We're looking at Richard Diebenkorn's "Untitled [seated nude pulling her hair]," created between 1955 and 1967 using pencil on paper. It's such a delicate and seemingly spontaneous drawing. What draws your eye when you see it? Curator: For me, the beauty lies in Diebenkorn's reduction to essentials. A nude figure, raw material for countless artists, is here rendered with minimal lines, almost like a diagram. We can appreciate the type of pencil used, its hardness and the pressure exerted to achieve different tonal values. Editor: It's interesting that you focus on the "materials" when it is figurative art. Curator: Precisely! It prompts us to consider: what is the cultural context that allows such reduction? What kind of access to materials does Diebenkorn have and what art historical forces allow for that? Is he constrained or privileged? Editor: You make it sound almost conceptual rather than representational. Curator: Not conceptual, but conscious. The "drawing" isn't just a picture; it's an artifact of labour. Each line is a decision, a deliberate act of creation, making something tangible from his perspective and the physical material of pencil on paper. I wonder, what can this labour tell us about what art can do in culture? What do *you* think of its relation to a possible broader consumption practice? Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way, more about him figuring out shape...but the idea of this being labor that can tell something about culture makes me wonder... Curator: Absolutely, this emphasis on the materiality provides clues! Thanks for discussing this further with me! Editor: Thank *you* for widening my view.