Richard Diebenkorn: Works on Paper presents rare drawings and etchings by the celebrated American painter, draftsman, and printmaker Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993). Dating from the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s, the three groupings of artworks in this exhibition demonstrate the recurring formal preoccupations with structure, movement, and perspective that define Diebenkorn’s endlessly powerful and mysterious oeuvre.
Richard Diebenkorn photographed by Ken Collins, 1980 Ocean Park Studio, Santa Monica, CA. Courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives.
These artworks illuminate the approaches and motifs that captured the artist’s attention at particular points in his career, including the meaningful employment of color, the translation of landscape into two-dimensional terms, and a fascination with spade and club forms. Intimate in scale and medium, this exhibition communicates the poetic sensitivities inherent to Diebenkorn’s work and deepens our understanding of the artist’s distinct visual vocabulary.
Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled (CR 1232), 1953
ink and graphite on paper
framed: 17 3/8 x 14 1/4 in. (44.1 x 36.2 cm)
signed "RD 53" lower right, numbered verso
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled (CR 1304), 1954
ink, gouache and charcoal on paper
framed: 16 3/8 x 13 5/8 in. (41.6 x 34.6 cm)
numbered "392" lower right verso
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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The earliest works in this presentation, dating from 1950 to 1955, are characterized by harmonized arrangements of blue and black ink, crayon, and charcoal, set against a white paper ground. Cups and patterns appear as quotidian markers within fields of abstraction, expressions of Diebenkorn’s known reverence for his immediate surroundings: “I could then look, and did, at the table beside me where I found a legitimate poetry attached to the facts of an ashtray and a coffee cup.”[1] In this sentimentalization of everyday objects a reversal occurs, grounding the lyricism of free-flowing shapes in reality and signaling that these images are drawn from life. The use of just one color, a ‘Diebenkorn blue,’ underscores the philosophical weight the artist perceived in humble observations and the spiritual satisfaction he found in the distilled hues of the sky and ocean.
Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled (CR 1305), 1954
ink, gouache, charcoal and graphite on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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Construction of Ocean Park Studio, Santa Monica, CA, 1975. © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation. Courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives.
Diebenkorn’s gouache paintings and etchings from the 1970s similarly engage with the beauty and truth to be found in simplicity as dynamic achromic lines prudently dissect each picture plane. Expanding on the legacy of Mondrian, a significant influence, Diebenkorn’s works diagram land- and cityscapes through transcendent geometric delineations, a feature which also defines the epic Ocean Park cycle of paintings and drawings. Aerial photographs taken by the artist throughout his life verify that these compositions are akin to maps, distinguishing Diebenkorn from other Modernists as a figure who created across the continuum of abstraction and representation.
Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled (CR 4674), 1973-1991
gouache and crayon on paper
framed: 31 3/8 x 25 1/8 in. (79.7 x 63.8 cm)
signed "RD 93" with "73" crossed out lower right
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
Aerial photographs, possibly San Francisco Bay, by Richard Diebenkorn, 1962. © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation. Courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives.
Healdsburg studio, photograph by Kathie Longinotti, 1993. Courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives.
Richard Diebenkorn
#4 from Six Softground Etchings, 1978
Edition AP, soft ground etching
framed: 45 1/2 x 31 1/4 in (115.6 x 79.4 cm)
signed "RD 78" lower right with edition lower left
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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Richard Diebenkorn
#3 from Six Softground Etchings, 1978
Edition AP, soft ground etching
framed: 45 1/2 x 31 1/4 in (115.6 x 79.4 cm)
signed "RD 78" lower right with edition lower left
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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Richard Diebenkorn
Blue Softground, 1985
soft ground etching and aquatint with à la poupée inking
plate: 14 7/8 x 23 7/8 in. (37.8 x 60.6 cm)
sheet: 26 3/8 x 40 1/4 in. (67 x 102.2 cm)
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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The spade and club are significant motifs which captivated Diebenkorn’s attention and appear in full force in the mixed media works from the 1980s. Prior artworks, like those of the 1950s, anticipate this fascination through bulbous curves and other sensuous forms. It was primarily, however, from 1980 to 1982 that the artist devoted himself to these symbols, first encountered on playing cards as a child, as if to process a lingering subconscious fixation. The personal significance of these shapes to the artist is unknown and secondary to their iconic value, dubbed ‘heraldic imagery’ by contemporary critics. These works stand out not only for their mysterious symbolic allusions, but also through a clear figure-ground relationship that suggests an association with the human figure.
Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled (CR 4497), 1981
gouache on paper
framed: 21 1/8 x 20 in. (53.7 x 50.8 cm)
numbered "2346" lower right verso
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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Richard Diebenkorn, photographs by Leo Holub, 1980. Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA. Courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives.
Even in a presentation across three time periods of the artist’s oeuvre, this collection of artworks illustrates the distinct and ranging poetry of Diebenkorn’s creative inquiries. Indeed, a trajectory of thought is detectable between the inky dividing lines of the earliest works and the thoughtfully segmented compositions from the 1970s, and the curvature of the symbolic spade appears more evident throughout with each consideration. What is offered by these works on paper is the revelations of an extraordinary mind, one which saw composition in all things.
Installation of Richard Diebenkorn: Works on Paper at L.A. Louver.
Photograph by Matt Emonson, 2024.
All archival materials courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.
References:
[1] Richard Diebenkorn, studio note, RDFA.157, Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.