Untitled [seated nude resting her head on her right hand] [recto] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this ink drawing of a nude figure on paper. It’s all flowing lines and watery grays, pooling in some areas and fading in others. It’s so immediate, so fast. You can feel him feeling his way around the form, trying to pin it down. There’s an elbow resting on a knee, a head in a hand – that classic pose of contemplation, or is it exhaustion? I’m guessing he was thinking about Matisse, maybe some Picasso too. You can see it in the looping lines, the interest in the interior, and the relationship between the figure and the space. That pooling of ink is gorgeous, isn’t it? It’s like the drawing is breathing, expanding and contracting. It’s the kind of drawing that makes you want to grab a brush and some ink and just go for it, you know? It reminds me that art-making is a conversation, a dialogue across time.