Untitled [female nude seated on a cushion] 1955 - 1967

This is an untitled drawing of a female nude seated on a cushion, made by Richard Diebenkorn with graphite on paper. Diebenkorn’s touch here is so delicate and searching, like he’s feeling his way around the form. Look at the way the lines sometimes double back, not quite sure of themselves, but in that uncertainty, they capture something really alive. It's like he’s mapping the space around the figure as much as the figure itself. The whole drawing feels very provisional, an art of suggestion. The right leg is only loosely described, but there’s enough there for your mind to fill in the rest. It reminds me a little of Matisse, in the way he could say so much with so little. It's not about perfection, but about the process of looking and finding something honest in the attempt.