Untitled [nude seated sideways resting her head and shoulder against seat back] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled nude drawing with graphite on paper. The woman depicted is leaning, exhausted. The loose and gestural lines give a real sense of her physical presence, and a feeling of how tired she is. I imagine Diebenkorn, charcoal in hand, circling her form, trying to capture the weight of her body, the curve of her spine. It’s like he's not just drawing what he sees, but also what he feels. The rapid marks, the smudges, they all contribute to this sense of intimacy. It's a fleeting moment, an attempt to hold on to something ephemeral. This makes me think of other artists, like Matisse, who also used line to explore form and emotion. We’re all just trying to figure out how to translate what we see and feel into something tangible, aren’t we? Each mark informs the next. It's such a conversation.