Untitled [woman seated with her legs tucked under her] 1955 - 1967

Editor: Here we have Richard Diebenkorn’s “Untitled [woman seated with her legs tucked under her]”, a pencil drawing from sometime between 1955 and 1967. It has a very casual, almost unfinished quality. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: The sketch feels deeply intimate. Diebenkorn, working in this period, operated in a charged cultural landscape where Abstract Expressionism held sway, particularly its masculine posturing. But his figuration offers an alternative, a private moment, eschewing the grandiose. The “unfinished” quality you mentioned can be read as resisting the demand for a finalized, saleable commodity. Does the pose of the sitter suggest anything to you? Editor: She looks contemplative, almost withdrawn, turned inwards. I guess that fits with what you were saying about a ‘private moment.’ Curator: Exactly. And think about the gaze – it isn’t directed at the viewer. This isn't a depiction meant to seduce or impress a public. How might this quiet introspection, rendered in simple pencil strokes, function as a kind of subtle resistance against the dominant artistic and social expectations of the time? Editor: So, in a way, its very modesty is what makes it subversive? It wasn’t trying to shout, but to offer a different, more personal vision? Curator: Precisely. Diebenkorn challenges the bravado that characterized much of the art world then by choosing the understated, and prioritizing an interior life. I find this to be a potent form of political expression. Editor: That’s fascinating! I hadn't considered the social context that deeply, focusing more on the immediate visual impact. It gives the drawing so much more weight, realizing it. Curator: Seeing art as embedded in its socio-political moment illuminates the choices artists make, and how those choices participate in broader conversations.