Untitled [study of a woman with an earring facing right] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this drawing of a woman with an earring, probably in the 1960s, using graphite on paper. The drawing feels like a whisper, tentative and exploratory, as if Diebenkorn is trying to find the woman in the lines, searching for her essence through each delicate mark. I imagine him, hunched over the paper, squinting, his hand moving with a kind of tender urgency. You can see him considering and reconsidering each curve of her face and neck. There is also a softness to it. The earring—a cross shape—is the only real punctuation mark, but you can see in the slight adjustment of line, in the soft shading of her cheek, a world of feeling, of quiet observation. It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin’s work, not in style, but in its meditative quality and its faith in the simple gesture. Every artist is in conversation with the others, right? It's like a silent, ongoing dialogue across time.