Richard Diebenkorn Exhibitions

Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942–1955

Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942–1955

  • Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Calif., 8 October 2017 - 7 January 2018
  • David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., 1 February 2018 - 20 May 2018
  • Portland Art Museum, Ore., 16 June 2018 - 23 September 2018
  • Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif., 12 January 2019 - 31 March 2019
  • Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, 26 April 2019 - 10 July 2019
Organized by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation in conjunction with the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento

Curated by Scott A. Shields, PhD, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Crocker Art Museum

Late in life, Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993) contemplated his career, remarking, “I think what one is about now has intimately to do with what one did yesterday, ten years ago, thirty years ago. Just as you can continue that progression, what somebody else did, forty years earlier, a hundred years earlier, I think that’s what one as an artist probably is.”

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942–1955, present a more rounded view of Diebenkorn’s evolution to maturity, focusing solely on the paintings and drawings that precede his shift to figuration. The exhibition seeks to take Diebenkorn at his word: that understanding his overall production depends on a broader knowledge of his aesthetic trajectory. Included in the exhibition are 100 paintings and drawings from the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, many of which had not before been publicly exhibited. Together these 78 drawings and 22 paintings offer a full picture of the young artist’s achievements.
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