Untitled [seated female nude] 1955 - 1967

This is a Richard Diebenkorn drawing of a seated nude made with dark crayon or ink on paper. I imagine him circling the model, squinting, trying to get it down, one line at a time. Diebenkorn was a master of simplification. In this work, he reduces the figure to its most essential forms with strong, confident lines. The dark strokes capture the weight and volume of the body, while leaving much unsaid and unshown. You can feel the artist's hand in the marks, deciding where to press hard and where to let up, building form out of tone. It reminds me of other drawings made by painters like Guston or de Kooning, all those artists who straddled figuration and abstraction. It's a constant push and pull, a conversation across studios and generations, where line, form, and the body meet. It’s all about that moment of seeing and responding, a dance between the eye and the hand.