| Maker(s): | Diebenkorn, Richard
| | Culture: | American (1922 - 1993)
| | Title: | Untitled #25
| | Date Made: | 1981
| | Type: | Drawing
| | Materials: | Gouache and crayon on two sheets of heavyweight glossy white paper
| | Place Made: | United States
| | Measurements: | sheet: 24 1/2 in x 25 in; 62.2 cm x 63.5 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | initials and date in pencil at lower right; RD 81
| | Accession Number: | SC 2012.1.6
| | Credit Line: | Gift of The Pokross Art Collection, donated in accordance with the wishes of Muriel Kohn Pokross, class of 1934 by her children, Joan Pokross Curhan, class of 1959, William R. Pokross and David R. Pokross Jr. in loving memory of their parents, Muriel Kohn Pokross, class of 1934 and David R. Pokross
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Description:
abstract with white background and straight and curving lines in black
Label Text:
Richard Diebenkorn grew up in San Francisco and attended Stanford University and the California School of Fine Arts, where he studied with David Park. Together, Diebenkorn and Park were two founders of the Bay Area Figurative School, choosing figuration over the prevailing abstract style of the time. In the mid-60s, Diebenkorn embarked on the series of non-figurative works for which he is best known: more than 140 monumental paintings that he titled Ocean Park after the Santa Monica neighborhood where his studio was located. With their linear planes and luminous, broadly-brushed glazes, the Ocean Park paintings dispensed of figures but resembled landscapes.
Untitled #25 comes from a series of drawings Diebenkorn executed during a hiatus in the Ocean Park series. Made in 1981 and 1982, they are based on playing card figures such as clubs and spades, shapes that had fascinated Diebenkorn since childhood.
Diebenkorn embarked on the playing card drawings after his mother, Dorothy Diebenkorn, became severely ill during the early 1980s. Finding it difficult to maintain the intense concentration required for the Ocean Park paintings, he turned to the new medium as a temporary diversion. Ultimately, the project occupied a steady year and a half of work. Untitled #25 was one of fifty sheets exhibited at the Knoedler Gallery in New York City in 1982. Additional writing on this object can be found at
Paper + People the Cunningham Center Blog.
Tags:
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2012.1.6 |
