Untitled [seated female nude with resting on left arm] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a seated female nude with charcoal on paper. See how the charcoal lines are urgent and searching, a kind of shorthand that reminds me of Cy Twombly’s drawings. What I love about drawing is how it can get you straight to the point. I imagine Diebenkorn squinting at his subject, trying to capture the essence of her pose with a kind of raw, energetic mark-making. That dark, smudgy charcoal around her face - you can feel the pressure of his hand, the physicality of the medium. It’s like he’s wrestling with the form, trying to pin it down on the page. I recognize this as a painter – the feeling of wanting to get it right, of chasing after something elusive. Painters have always looked at other painters’ work, to find inspiration, to steal ideas, or to rebel against them. It’s all part of the conversation.