Untitled [seated nude leaning on armrest] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink on paper drawing of a seated nude sometime in the 20th century. The social history of art asks us to consider the reasons why artists make the choices they do. One feature we can note in this image is the sitter’s anonymity. The face has been scrubbed out with ink. While we may not know precisely what motivated Diebenkorn, we can see that it removes this figure from the traditions of academic painting which typically used the nude as a vehicle to study the ideal proportions of the human form. What is left is a frank assessment of the body. Diebenkorn was living in a society that was becoming increasingly open about sex and sexuality. A historian might consider the impact of Alfred Kinsey’s reports about sexual behavior, or the popularization of Freudian psychoanalysis. These factors may have contributed to a cultural shift towards depictions of the human body that were less idealized and more realistic.