untitled [recto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing with pencil, probably in a studio, somewhere in America. Look at the shadows he's made: they’re dark and scratchy, quickly scribbled in. I imagine him squinting at the model, his pencil moving fast across the paper, trying to capture the way the light falls across her body. Diebenkorn was clearly focused on the weight and form of her figure. It reminds me a little of those Matisse drawings - simple lines that suggest so much. I bet Diebenkorn was thinking about Matisse when he made this. See how the lines are thicker in some places, creating depth and volume? It's like he’s carving the figure out of the paper with his pencil. These marks communicate a feeling, like he's trying to understand the woman in front of him. It's like he's having a conversation with her through his drawing. All artists are in conversation with one another; they teach each other across time.