Untitled [back view of kneeling female nude] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this brush and ink drawing of a kneeling nude, and you can feel him feeling his way across the paper. It’s all done with these luscious black marks on a stark white ground. I can imagine Diebenkorn, brush loaded, circling the form, searching for the right contour, maybe muttering to himself. You know, that studio talk. The ink is thin and washy in places and thick and juicy in others. Notice the back of the figure: the way the brush swoops down from the neck to the curve of the back – that's a total home run. And it’s balanced by that figure below, reclining almost like a dark shadow. Diebenkorn always keeps the spirit of drawing alive in his paintings, too. It’s about looking, and thinking, and feeling, all at once, and then making a mark, and then doing it again. That’s what we all do; we are all just talking to each other.