Untitled [two studies of a model] [recto] 1955 - 1967

This double portrait by Richard Diebenkorn feels intimate, like a page torn from a sketchbook. I can almost hear the scratch of the graphite moving across the paper. See how the lines overlap, crisscross? I imagine Diebenkorn circling his subject, trying to capture not just what she looks like, but something about the feeling of seeing her. The two studies, one in profile and the other more frontal, are like seeing two sides of the same coin, or maybe two different moments in time collapsing into one. The sparse use of line gives it a feeling of incompleteness, as though it is a fleeting, half-formed vision. This reminds me of work by artists like Giacometti, who wrestled with similar ideas of perception and representation. Each artist grapples with the challenge of seeing, and of translating that vision onto a surface. Painting is a process of inquiry, one that embraces uncertainty and welcomes new discoveries along the way.