Untitled [nude seated in an armchair turning to her left] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a nude in an armchair, using charcoal on paper. The beauty is in the lines, right? How they confidently stake out the space. It’s like he's thinking out loud, each mark a decision, a feeling. The charcoal gives it a real immediacy. You can almost feel the roughness of the paper under the stick. Look at the way the lines vary in thickness, they are bold and assertive but also delicate, almost tentative in places. There's this one spot, just where the model’s leg crosses the chair – a tangle of marks that perfectly captures the weight and form but leaves space for air. Diebenkorn's exploration of form reminds me of Matisse, and the way he’d redraw a line over and over until it just felt right. Diebenkorn wasn't about perfection, but a lived, felt kind of seeing. He allows us to see not just the figure, but the process of figuring.