Untitled [rear view of female nude with standing figure] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a female nude, we don't know when, with charcoal on paper. Just look at the vigorous marks, the smudges and the way he’s built up those dark areas! You can almost feel him wrestling with the image, trying to capture the weight and presence of the figure. It's like he’s thinking through the charcoal, each stroke a question, a correction, a search for the right form. I wonder what it was like for him to create it? Was he frustrated? Did he feel like he was getting somewhere? I feel for the artist, trying to nail it, to translate what the eye sees into a mark, a line, a shadow. It reminds me a little of de Kooning's line, but with a kind of West Coast light. These artists are all in conversation, all working through similar problems, all inspiring each other. It's so cool!