Untitled [standing female nude with right hand on hip] [recto] 1955 - 1967

Editor: This drawing, "Untitled [standing female nude with right hand on hip]," is by Richard Diebenkorn, created sometime between 1955 and 1967, using charcoal and pencil. There’s something so immediate and raw about the sketch. What strikes me is its confidence despite being so minimal. What do you see in this work? Curator: This piece speaks to me of primal creation. Consider the historical and psychological weight of the female nude throughout art history. From Venus to modern representations, she embodies ideals of beauty and fertility, but also vulnerability. Diebenkorn uses sparse lines and shading to suggest form, inviting the viewer to complete the image. What feelings are evoked by this unfinished quality, by the frank gaze we imagine? Editor: I hadn't really thought about the ‘unfinished’ aspect being a deliberate choice that affects my perception. I guess I had just assumed that it was, you know, a sketch. But the gaze – there is a sense of challenge, or perhaps knowing, conveyed by the pose even though we can’t see her face. Curator: Precisely. The pose, hand on hip, reads as both vulnerable and assertive. That stance itself has been coded throughout centuries of art and lived experience – what does it evoke in you? What cultural memories does it spark? Think of the layers of symbolism we’ve assigned to the body and its posture over time. Editor: It definitely gives her agency, a kind of defiance. And by not completing the face, Diebenkorn invites us to project our own interpretations, our own understandings of the feminine onto her. Curator: Exactly. And through that projection, we engage in a dialogue with art history, with the evolving image of womanhood, and with ourselves. It shows how imagery, even in its simplest form, carries tremendous power. Editor: I am not going to look at sketches the same way. Curator: And hopefully, see the echoes of past and future in every image you encounter.