Untitled [female nude resting on a bed] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled drawing of a female nude, we don’t know when or where, or even exactly with what, but it looks like graphite on paper. Look at the marks, see how they build up into a density of tone, but you can still see the individual lines. This is so much about process, about how a drawing comes into being. The pressure of the pencil on the paper varies, giving the lines different weights. Notice the way he uses hatching to create shadows and volume. It’s all about the physicality of the medium. I love the leg that’s closest to us, how he uses these squiggly lines to suggest its weight and volume as it recedes into the space of the drawing. Diebenkorn did a lot of these figure drawings throughout his career, often returning to the same subject matter and motifs, but always with a fresh eye. He was also friends with other artists like Elmer Bischoff, so they were probably in conversation with one another about their artmaking processes. Ultimately, it’s a drawing that embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations.