Untitled [woman reading a newspaper] 1955 - 1967

This drawing, of a woman reading a newspaper, was made by Richard Diebenkorn using graphite on paper. There’s something so immediate about seeing graphite on paper, isn't there? It feels like we’re looking directly into the artist's process. Diebenkorn's lines are tentative, searching. You can see where he’s gone over the same area multiple times, trying to capture the figure's pose and the pattern on her dress. It’s this very searching quality that makes the drawing feel so alive, so full of potential. Look at the way he’s rendered the newspaper, how he suggests the shapes and figures within it without really defining them. This kind of ambiguity runs through all his work. Diebenkorn reminds me of Matisse, in that he's using line to find a kind of intimate, domestic poetry. For both artists, the everyday is a place of endless fascination. We can see this as an ongoing conversation, across time, about how we see and experience the world. It’s never fixed or definitive, but always open to interpretation.