Untitled [female nude on the floor leaning on her right arm] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a female nude with charcoal on paper sometime in the 20th century. I'm looking at these searching lines, trying to find form, seeing how they almost but don’t quite connect. I can imagine Diebenkorn circling the model, searching for that line – was he trying to find the line that makes a hip or the curve of a thigh? I wonder what he said to the model. Did he say anything? This drawing feels like a thought, a sketch, and an experiment all at once, reminiscent of Matisse’s pared-down drawings of women. Look at how he almost erases the lines by smudging them into the page. It makes me want to grab a piece of paper and charcoal and start making marks to see what happens. To allow the process to guide the image, rather than the other way around. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? A conversation between artists, across time, where we push each other to see and make in new ways.