Untitled [reclining nude seen in deep perspective] [recto] 1955 - 1967

Editor: This is Richard Diebenkorn’s "Untitled [reclining nude seen in deep perspective]," a pencil drawing made sometime between 1955 and 1967. The deep perspective really throws me – it feels almost confrontational in its intimacy. How do you see it, in terms of its place within the artistic landscape of the time? Curator: What's compelling here is precisely that tension between intimacy and abstraction, a hallmark of much modernist art following the Second World War. The socio-political landscape of the time heavily influenced art. After experiencing global trauma and a shattering of ideals, artists increasingly turned inward, exploring subjective experience. So, think about Diebenkorn using the figure, traditionally a very public, celebrated subject, but rendering it in a fragmented, almost anonymous way. Does that speak to something larger, perhaps a questioning of established narratives or the place of the individual within society? Editor: It's almost as if the public is being denied easy access to the private. You're saying he's taking a familiar form – the reclining nude – and almost weaponizing it, by making it…difficult. Curator: Precisely! Think about how galleries and museums displayed nudes before this period, often romanticized and idealized. Diebenkorn disrupts that comfortable viewing experience. What kind of political statement do you think this drawing might make? How does it challenge the art establishment of the time? Editor: Perhaps it's questioning the authority of those institutions, rejecting the idea of beauty as purely something to be consumed passively, demanding active engagement. I hadn't really thought about how much even a 'simple' nude could be so engaged with socio-political issues! Curator: And how the institutions reflect and shape those same political tensions. That constant interplay makes this piece so fascinating. It’s more than just a drawing; it's a quiet rebellion on paper. Editor: This has definitely given me a new lens for viewing Diebenkorn's work, and even nudes in general!