Richard Diebenkorn
Sink (recto); Female Nude (verso)
1966
Scroll
Richard Diebenkorn
Sink (recto); Female Nude (verso)
1966
Physical Qualities
Brush and black ink and charcoal, Sheet: 630 × 478 mm. (24 13/16 × 18 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection
Object Number
1969.2
Around 1967, just as many artists began to investigate figuration again, Diebenkorn shifted from representational works to abstraction, beginning what would become known
as his Ocean Park period. This drawing comes right at this moment of transition, an excellent example of a representational technique that is clearly informed by an interest in abstract composition (note his treatment of the foreground wall, the back walls, and the lower floor which serve simultaneously as pictorial elements and abstract shapes). While many domestic scenes from his figurative period focus on a lived-in environment, his choice to depict an empty room reflects his desire to focus on the
compositional elements.
Publication References
Bishop, Janet, and Katherine Rothkopf, eds. Matisse/Diebenkorn. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2016, page 115, plate 70.
Burgard, Timothy Anglin., Steven A. Nash, and Emma Acker. "Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966." San Fancisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2013. Print. fig.104, p.177
Enstice, Wayne, and Melody Peters. "Drawing: Space, Form, and Expression." Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print. fig. 1-21, p.32, ill.
Enstice, Wayne and Melody Peters. "Drawing: Space, Form, & Expression." Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. p. 33, ill.
Dorsey, John. "'Modern Drawings' complements BMA's new wing." The Baltimore Sun, October 11, 1994
Elderfield, John. The Drawings of Richard Diebenkorn; New York: The Museum of Modern Art and Houston Fine Art Press, 1988, p. 119 (ill.).
"The Thomas Edward Benesch Memorial Collection," BMA, 1970, unpaginated.
Victor Carlson and Edward M. Benesch. "The Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," BMA News, vol. XXIX, no. 3-4,1967, p. 9, 10 (ill.).
Carlson, Victor, and Carol Hynning Smith. Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, NY: The American Federation of Arts, 1979, pp. 177, ill.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1969; Edward M. Benesch, New York, 1969; Poindexter Gallery, New York
Select Views: Drawings from the Benesch Collection
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years
Richard Diebenkorn: paintings and drawings, 1943-1976; Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Gallery, 1976. Exhibition catalog. Essays by Maurice Tuchman, Gerald Nordland, Robert T. Buck Jr., Linda L. Cathcart.
Inscribed: lower left in graphite: "RD67"
Markings: WM: Strathmore