Untitled [seated nude woman in black stockings] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a seated nude woman on paper, and what strikes me most are the bold, sweeping brushstrokes that capture not just the figure, but the very act of seeing. I can imagine Diebenkorn, squinting maybe, trying to find the form within the shadows, the ink almost like a stand-in for light itself. The way he’s massed the darks—it's like he’s wrestling with form, pulling it out of the void. There’s this beautiful tension between what's defined and what's left to our imagination. Look at the furious energy in those scribbled lines around her legs! They suggest stockings, but they also feel like the artist's own restless searching, the kind that you often see in his paintings. It makes me think about other artists like de Kooning, and how they used the figure as a way to explore the possibilities of painting itself. It’s all one big conversation, isn't it?