Untitled [seated female nude leaning on hands] 1955 - 1967

Editor: So, this is "Untitled [seated female nude leaning on hands]" by Richard Diebenkorn, made sometime between 1955 and 1967, a pencil drawing. The figure feels both intimate and remote somehow. The smudged face, especially… What strikes you most about this drawing? Curator: That smudging is so evocative, isn’t it? Like a memory fading or being deliberately obscured. For me, it speaks to the tension between revealing and concealing, not just of the body, but perhaps the artist's own emotional landscape. Diebenkorn was navigating the shift from Abstract Expressionism to figuration during this period. Do you sense any of that push and pull in the work itself? Editor: Absolutely! The lines are so raw and expressive, yet there’s this clear attempt to define the figure, to ground it. It’s like he's wrestling with the subject, rather than just observing it passively. Curator: Wrestling is the perfect word! It makes me think of his relationship to the model and to the history of nudes, all those idealized forms. But Diebenkorn lets the messiness of lived experience creep in. The imperfections are what make it so real. Look at how the light catches the curve of her back… it feels deeply felt, almost vulnerable. What does the pose convey to you? Editor: To me, there's a sense of weariness, maybe even defiance. The way she’s leaning, it’s not a classical, idealized pose, but something more… human. It feels like a very private moment. Curator: Exactly. And that’s where the beauty lies, I think. In the truth of the moment captured with such honesty and expressive line work. It resonates even now, don't you agree? Editor: It definitely does. I see it with completely fresh eyes now. Thanks so much for sharing that perspective. Curator: My pleasure! These are just my impressions, of course, the magic of art is it speaks differently to us all.