Virtual ExhibitsTitle:
PORTRAIT
Artist:
Diebenkorn, Richard (1922-1993)
Medium:
Oil on Canvas
Date:
1956
Source:
Poindexter Collection
Object ID:
X1966.04.10
Description:
Richard Diebenkorn was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
This painting reflects Diebenkorn's move away from abstract expressionism and his movement toward a more representational style. This intimate painting is a portrait of a man rendered as if he were sculpted out of successive layers of paint. He sits terse and monolithic with blank features formed from fleshy paint pulled over top of cool blue shadows, the dark of his hair is a void that supports one pink ear. The area behind the head is a taupe colored wall segmented by thin lines of underpainting. At shoulder height the background shifts and there is a dark veil that defines the figure's arms and shoulders. Below the heavily worked head, the body gives way to light washes of lavender with evidence of some greens and pinks. The thin paint of the body is punctuated with a tightly clenched fist, alternately painted and carved with the handle of the paintbrush, that anchors the figure to the bottom of the canvas. A stoic figure full of quiet tension, Diebenkorn causes the body to twist in space through carefully placed edges and color shifts.
This painting reflects Diebenkorn's move away from abstract expressionism and his movement toward a more representational style. This intimate painting is a portrait of a man rendered as if he were sculpted out of successive layers of paint. He sits terse and monolithic with blank features formed from fleshy paint pulled over top of cool blue shadows, the dark of his hair is a void that supports one pink ear. The area behind the head is a taupe colored wall segmented by thin lines of underpainting. At shoulder height the background shifts and there is a dark veil that defines the figure's arms and shoulders. Below the heavily worked head, the body gives way to light washes of lavender with evidence of some greens and pinks. The thin paint of the body is punctuated with a tightly clenched fist, alternately painted and carved with the handle of the paintbrush, that anchors the figure to the bottom of the canvas. A stoic figure full of quiet tension, Diebenkorn causes the body to twist in space through carefully placed edges and color shifts.
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Painting, Portrait, X1966.04.10
Painting, Portrait, X1966.04.10
