Untitled (Albuquerque) 1952

Richard Diebenkorn made this untitled painting in Albuquerque with oil on canvas. Can you imagine him there, pushing around those ochre and brown tones to conjure the hot New Mexico landscape? I love the way he teases out space, it's like a stage set but flatter, messier, and more soulful. The paint isn't too thick, not like you could eat it with a spoon, but just right to make you feel the canvas breathing underneath. That smear of pink at the bottom feels risky, vulnerable. What was he thinking when he put that there? Did he know it would make the whole painting sing? Diebenkorn’s genius was in how he balanced representation and abstraction, like Hopper meets Rothko. Painters are always borrowing from each other, a visual call and response that echoes through time. This piece is an exercise in feeling, thinking, and seeing all at once. Painting lets us live in that ambiguity, that uncertainty, and that’s where the real juice is.