Richard Diebenkorn

Richard Diebenkorn’s studio set near Ocean Park Boulevard on the beachfront enclave of Santa Monica served as an inspiration for a body of work which he would produce between the years of 1967 and 1987 entitled Ocean Park.  Executed in 1978, Untitled (Ocean Park) is an outstanding example of one of Diebenkorn’s paintings on paper from this series, produced at the height of this celebrated period. 

Departing from his figurative and landscape paintings of the mid-1950s, Diebenkorn dramatically reduced his compositions to focus solely on linear patterns and geometric forms, much like his predecessor Piet Mondrian.  Diebenkorn’s move from the figurative to the abstract was also highly influenced by two works by Henri Matisse from 1914, View of Notre Dame and Open Window, Collioure which he first viewed in January 1966 at a Matisse retrospective held at the University of California Art Galleries in Los Angeles.  Upon seeing these works, Diebenkorn was struck by the airy and open quality of the surface and the spontaneity of the brushwork that seemed to almost anticipate American abstract expressionist painting of the late 1940s and early 1950s.  The powerful linear qualities of these works would have a lasting effect on Diebenkorn’s aesthetics and would resurface to be the framework upon which he would inherently base his Ocean Park compositions.

In the present work, the cool blues, greens and pinks transcend over the intermittent milky and cloudy white and, based upon the strict linear structure, create an illuminating and inspiring representation of Dibenkorn’s oeuvre.  Experimenting with a variety of mediums and techniques, Diebenkorn combined oils, inks, watercolors and graphite to achieve a new sensation of surface and light, which is here masterfully exhibited. Through the compartmentalizing of his space, Diebenkorn exerts complete authority over his composition and creates a refreshingly new sense of the abstract that is unique to his oeuvre.