Richard Diebenkorn

M. Knoedler & Co., New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1979)
M. Knoedler & Co., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1983

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Richard Diebenkorn, May 1979, p. 15, illustrated in color

This work is in good condition overall. There is an undulation to the sheet, inherent to the artist's working method and chosen materials. There are artist's pinholes in all four corners causing some loss to the paint, and there are artist's pinholes along the bottom and lateral edges of the sheet. There is a tear to the sheet along the bottom edge near the center, a tear at the upper left lateral edge and a partial tear to the sheet just right of center, all visible in the catalogue illustration. The polyester sheet has been irregularly torn by the artist and there are scattered light abrasions to the surface causing inconsistencies in the texture of the paint, also inherent to the artist's working method. There are pinpoint spot and media accretions scattered throughout and there is a faint shoe imprint visible in the polyester sheet, both presumably from the time of execution and inherent to the artist's studio environment. The sheet is hinged verso to the matte intermittently along the edges. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Completed in 1978 by the renowned painter Richard Diebenkorn, Untitled #7 works in subtle layers and geometries. Working in sheer, overlapping coats of paint, Diebenkorn creates a field washed with blues and yellows, the space of the rectangular picture plane divided into coincident blocks of blue, white, yellow, black, and red. While Untitled #7 is resolutely abstract, it does seem to hold onto the corners of landscape, and grasp at the rectilinearity of architecture. Some who have interpreted these works see fragments of an empty studio wall, or a partially glimpsed rooftop in Diebenkorn’s planes, though any references remain swathed in a meditative and sublime abstraction. During an era when artists were moving out of the studio and into the world, Diebenkorn remained committed to painting, carefully exploring figurative images, Abstract Expressionist compositions, and the sorts of geometrically bound compositions represented so well by Untitled #7. Diebenkorn’s late studio paintings, anchored concretely to a sense of place, and typified by his signature use of color and light, have become the artist’s most significant contributions to 20^th Century painting.

Born and raised on the West Coast where the artist spent the majority of his career, Diebenkorn is well-known as a master colorist. His palette is distinctive, washed with light, and reminiscent of coastal locales where he often set up his studio. Untitled #7, with its abstract geometric composition and its cast of blues, pinks, and yellows carefully layered together, unites the painting with Diebenkorn’s most admired series, the Ocean Park paintings. Named for the neighborhood of Santa Monica where Diebenkorn had his studio from 1967 until 1988, the Ocean Park paintings are distinctive in their scale, focus, and subtlety.

While the Ocean Park pictures represent Diebenkorn’s mature style, it is certainly not where he began. Rather, these paintings are the result of decades of constant exploration and rigorous experimentation. As an art and art history student at Stanford University, a member of the U.S. Marine Corps stationed for a time on the East Coast, and, following the war, a participant in the American GI Bill, Diebenkorn absorbed influences from Matisse to Klee, Rothko to Schwitters. Following the war and his schooling, Diebenkorn moved between Sausalito, just north of San Francisco; Albuquerque; Urbana, Illinois; Berkeley; and Los Angeles—shifting and evolving his style as he journeyed from place to place.

Much of Diebenkorn’s early work used improvisation as a guiding principle, tying the resulting pictures with a style of American Abstract Expressionism. While his lines may have been wilder, his shapes less definite in these early works, Diebenkorn’s uncanny eye for color is visible here as well. During the middle of his career, Diebenkorn briefly deserted abstraction, making a series of works—referred to as the Berkeley paintings—that explored landscape and human forms. It was in Los Angeles, as an already middle-aged artist, that Diebenkorn returned to the abstract, developing his signature Ocean Park paintings, ruminating on these simple geometries for the remainder of his career.

An analogy between Diebenkorn’s abstract, geometric paintings can be found in the works of Piet Mondrian, a pioneering member of the De Stijl group. Mondrian’s exploration of the geometric grid laid the ground for various approaches to pure abstraction that would become an obsession for many of the most inspiring artists of the 20^th century. Like Diebenkorn, Mondrian moved from figuration to abstraction, his work evolving over the course of his life into his iconic grid works, like Composition with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow and Gray (1921). Mondrian’s influence can certainly be seen in Diebenkorn’s reliance on the stability of vertical and horizontal planes.

Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park works can also be compared to another West Coast painter and master of color, Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud’s paintings of San Francisco streets, ordinary objects, and human forms employ a color palette that resonates with Diebenkorn’s own, its hues seemingly soaked in coastal sunsets and bathed in sea air. Thiebaud’s Sunset Streets (1985) depicts an urban roadway careening vertically up the plane of the painting—representing through a fascinating flattening of perspective the hilly streets of the Bay Area. Thiebaud’s style was undoubtedly influenced by Diebenkorn’s own, echoing not only his use of color, but also his forays into the Bay Area landscape, which also take on an unusual perspective—a privileging of the vertical axis that can be seen, as well, in the Ocean Park works.

As New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman wrote of Diebenkorn’s legacy at the time of his death in 1993, “His abstractions are composed of second thoughts, pentimenti, erasures and emendations…The strength, and the curiosity, of his work also involves the contradiction inherent in the idea that indecision, conflict and tinkering could become the essence of such sensuous and seductive painting.” Visible in the subtle layers of Untitled #7, Diebenkorn’s process was one of constant experimentation and evolution. His biography and his painting seem, now, inextricably linked, his style often shifting with a change of scenery. Upon considering his delicate yet boldly iconic works, this connects seems to be a natural one: Diebenkorn’s paintings are manifestations of a carefully considered life, one in which light, line, and color were merged together to achieve beautiful balance.