Richard Diebenkorn Writings
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
< Scroll left to right >
Artist's writing
Date:
c. 1956 Current owner:
Richard Diebenkorn Foundation Archives
Credit Line:
© Richard Diebenkorn Foundation RD number:
RDFA.155 Description
Transcription:
[image 1]
[strikethrough] I'm choosing to paint the human image. I am only following my hunch [/strikethrough]
A painter can do no better than get his interests into as plain view as they will permit them when they move.
[strikethrough] Sometimes their twin brothers come up and go off in other directions
most of my attempts to explain why I depict [/strikethrough]
A painter can do no better than [strikethrough] put his interests into as clear a view as they will permit and follow when they move.
[line break]
see his interests as clearly as they will permit
[line break]
recognize his interests and follow them. [/strikethrough]
see his interests as clearly as he can.
[image 2]
I see man as existing in a room with one or several windows and a door. [strikethrough] I consider his activity, aside from looking outside, within the room, or inside, of little consequence. I consider his activity, aside from looking outside, inside, and within the room, nourishment and procreation. [/strikethrough] I consider his activity, aside from taking nourishment, procreation, looking outside, inside, and within the room, of little consequence. Because the symbol of man traditionally has much glory attached to it I use that of a woman. I wish I were good enough to use Massaccio's Eve.
[image 3]
I see nature only when I haven't looked at it for a while. I see people everyday and although I'm often bored by what they say and do (and write) I am perpetually fascinated by the look of all of them. This of course ties in with my consideration of the human image in paint as the most compelling possibility that exists.
[image 4]
[strikethrough] Say that [double strikethrough] what [/double strikethrough] the representation of the [double strikethrough] fig [/double strikethrough] human figure is necessary. [/strikethrough]
[line break]
My working responses to painting when it contains the human image are more acute than when it doesn't.
[line break]
When I added specific description to my painting I asked, "Where has this been all the time?" When
[line break]
For me the representation of [strikethrough] the [/strikethrough] physical facts such as are found in "landscapes," "interiors," or "figure pieces" has become one of the properties of painting. [strikethrough] To go further [/strikethrough]
[line break]
I believe that the representations of men, women, walls, fields, etc. [strikethrough] are obvious necessities [/strikethrough] are necessary to painting and I feel that my belief is the major step in the direction of making successful pictures in these terms.
[line break]
Spatial ambiguities, intensity spelled out, infinite suggestibility
[image 5]
I don't think that literary references ever hurt painting except when other than painters made them.
[line break]
It's O.K. now, providing you [strikethrough] rather unsubtly [/strikethrough] spell out the facts, namely that you are frankly representing the figure or things and that you know better
[line break]
[strikethrough] I've come to feel that direct, all together intentional representation of the physical facts around us [double strikethrough] (I suppose I must include [/double strikethrough] is one of the more [double strikethrough] important means of the painter certainly as important as color [/double strikethrough] indispensable properties of painting. If it weren't for an occasional beautiful landscape without figures done within the last few hundred years I'd be tempted to [/strikethrough]
[image 6]
In abstract painting I [strikethrough] was oppressed by a limited range [/strikethrough] worried about [strikethrough] a range of possibilities [/strikethrough] the limited range of [strikethrough] certain [/strikethrough] possibilities that as time went on became increasingly important to me. I wanted to express or deal with differences that an all-pver paint and canvas "presence" neutralized. The common denominator of all the elements I would use, [strikethrough] was invariably a little too strong [/strikethrough] namely paint and its somewhat consistent handling as well as its manifest adherence to the surface, proved too strong for the shift in emphasis that I wanted in my work. I found that a somewhat literal reinforcement of the differences I sought, such as, outside beside interior, sunlight opposed to gloom, the presence of person as opposed to emptiness, made the balance a better one and maintained the kind of differences that I sought.
[image 7]
I would like to feel that I am involved at any stage of making the painting with all its moments not just this "now" moment when a superficial grace seems ever available. The representation of elements from "outside" looking especially the human figure enables me to [strikethrough] maintain [/strikethrough] keep touch with earlier intentions as well as possibilities for the painting's future. It also serves as a block to a too free flow as well breaking up gesture
[image 8]
Just as I once believed that spatial ambiguities, intensity spelled out, and infinite suggestibility were necessary properties of painting I now believe that the representations of men, women, walls, windows, and cups are necessary.
[line break]
There is of course an image or a "voice" for the artist in terms of what he believes. I don't [strikethrough] believe that [/strikethrough] think however that [strikethrough] an [/strikethrough] the expression of a spatial ambiguity or [strikethrough] a cup is [/strikethrough] the representation of a woman is what is most important
[image 9]
[strikethrough] However, at present, I think of painting possibility
[line break]
But for some years I had been aware that the kind of expressiveness [/strikethrough]
[line break]
Before 1956 the physical presence of the painting was my main concern although what came first and still does is that I make emotional sense of what I'm doing. An emotional rightness [strikethrough] may be made with the most extreme limitations and this for me [/strikethrough] is the main measure of a painting's worth and a painter can acheive [sic] it under the most extreme limitations, self-imposed or otherwise. But he can acheive [sic] it also in terms of an abundant means. And if some appetite for the whole works or a different set of works besets him he can still get it—if he's capable of it in the first place. And so, at present, I'm for the
[image 10]
physical presence of the painting and for deep space of the picture, extravagance and restraint, the personal and the impersonal, the girl and the "form", my cake and the taste of it. I am trying to make these things work in exactly the way that I have tried to make paint abstraction work.
[upside down]
I don't object to verbalizations about painting or feel that words can damage it. But I am [strikethrough] simply [/strikethrough] wary of the scant and often absurd relationship between painter's works and their verbal stance and self-justifications.
[image 11]
The human image functions for me as a kind of key to the painting.
[line break]
The human image [strikethrough] with [/strikethrough] in painting [strikethrough] can carry [/strikethrough] lends itself to a concentration of meanings as opposed to the relatively diffuse and limited meaning of painted environment. However I find it possible also to concentrate or unify pieces of the environment. In this way a window may become a unit or piece of outdoors. The indoors becomes a world in itself and the figure becomes yet another. I'm fascinated with the arrangement of these elements. I can set them out separately, juxtapose them in various sequence, overlap them and [strikethrough] in some cases [/strikethrough] mingle them. [strikethrough] Also interesting to me is the power of the figure to establish, fix, and color its invironment [sic]. A given figure (in this [/strikethrough]
[image 12]
[strikethrough] I'm interested in
I find curious what [double strikethrough] objects [/double strikethrough] things I pass on as objects in my painting. I can paint coffee pots and cups to my satisfaction, if I think of the pot as a tea pot I can't—bottles are out altogether [/strikethrough]
[image 1]
[strikethrough] I'm choosing to paint the human image. I am only following my hunch [/strikethrough]
A painter can do no better than get his interests into as plain view as they will permit them when they move.
[strikethrough] Sometimes their twin brothers come up and go off in other directions
most of my attempts to explain why I depict [/strikethrough]
A painter can do no better than [strikethrough] put his interests into as clear a view as they will permit and follow when they move.
[line break]
see his interests as clearly as they will permit
[line break]
recognize his interests and follow them. [/strikethrough]
see his interests as clearly as he can.
[image 2]
I see man as existing in a room with one or several windows and a door. [strikethrough] I consider his activity, aside from looking outside, within the room, or inside, of little consequence. I consider his activity, aside from looking outside, inside, and within the room, nourishment and procreation. [/strikethrough] I consider his activity, aside from taking nourishment, procreation, looking outside, inside, and within the room, of little consequence. Because the symbol of man traditionally has much glory attached to it I use that of a woman. I wish I were good enough to use Massaccio's Eve.
[image 3]
I see nature only when I haven't looked at it for a while. I see people everyday and although I'm often bored by what they say and do (and write) I am perpetually fascinated by the look of all of them. This of course ties in with my consideration of the human image in paint as the most compelling possibility that exists.
[image 4]
[strikethrough] Say that [double strikethrough] what [/double strikethrough] the representation of the [double strikethrough] fig [/double strikethrough] human figure is necessary. [/strikethrough]
[line break]
My working responses to painting when it contains the human image are more acute than when it doesn't.
[line break]
When I added specific description to my painting I asked, "Where has this been all the time?" When
[line break]
For me the representation of [strikethrough] the [/strikethrough] physical facts such as are found in "landscapes," "interiors," or "figure pieces" has become one of the properties of painting. [strikethrough] To go further [/strikethrough]
[line break]
I believe that the representations of men, women, walls, fields, etc. [strikethrough] are obvious necessities [/strikethrough] are necessary to painting and I feel that my belief is the major step in the direction of making successful pictures in these terms.
[line break]
Spatial ambiguities, intensity spelled out, infinite suggestibility
[image 5]
I don't think that literary references ever hurt painting except when other than painters made them.
[line break]
It's O.K. now, providing you [strikethrough] rather unsubtly [/strikethrough] spell out the facts, namely that you are frankly representing the figure or things and that you know better
[line break]
[strikethrough] I've come to feel that direct, all together intentional representation of the physical facts around us [double strikethrough] (I suppose I must include [/double strikethrough] is one of the more [double strikethrough] important means of the painter certainly as important as color [/double strikethrough] indispensable properties of painting. If it weren't for an occasional beautiful landscape without figures done within the last few hundred years I'd be tempted to [/strikethrough]
[image 6]
In abstract painting I [strikethrough] was oppressed by a limited range [/strikethrough] worried about [strikethrough] a range of possibilities [/strikethrough] the limited range of [strikethrough] certain [/strikethrough] possibilities that as time went on became increasingly important to me. I wanted to express or deal with differences that an all-pver paint and canvas "presence" neutralized. The common denominator of all the elements I would use, [strikethrough] was invariably a little too strong [/strikethrough] namely paint and its somewhat consistent handling as well as its manifest adherence to the surface, proved too strong for the shift in emphasis that I wanted in my work. I found that a somewhat literal reinforcement of the differences I sought, such as, outside beside interior, sunlight opposed to gloom, the presence of person as opposed to emptiness, made the balance a better one and maintained the kind of differences that I sought.
[image 7]
I would like to feel that I am involved at any stage of making the painting with all its moments not just this "now" moment when a superficial grace seems ever available. The representation of elements from "outside" looking especially the human figure enables me to [strikethrough] maintain [/strikethrough] keep touch with earlier intentions as well as possibilities for the painting's future. It also serves as a block to a too free flow as well breaking up gesture
[image 8]
Just as I once believed that spatial ambiguities, intensity spelled out, and infinite suggestibility were necessary properties of painting I now believe that the representations of men, women, walls, windows, and cups are necessary.
[line break]
There is of course an image or a "voice" for the artist in terms of what he believes. I don't [strikethrough] believe that [/strikethrough] think however that [strikethrough] an [/strikethrough] the expression of a spatial ambiguity or [strikethrough] a cup is [/strikethrough] the representation of a woman is what is most important
[image 9]
[strikethrough] However, at present, I think of painting possibility
[line break]
But for some years I had been aware that the kind of expressiveness [/strikethrough]
[line break]
Before 1956 the physical presence of the painting was my main concern although what came first and still does is that I make emotional sense of what I'm doing. An emotional rightness [strikethrough] may be made with the most extreme limitations and this for me [/strikethrough] is the main measure of a painting's worth and a painter can acheive [sic] it under the most extreme limitations, self-imposed or otherwise. But he can acheive [sic] it also in terms of an abundant means. And if some appetite for the whole works or a different set of works besets him he can still get it—if he's capable of it in the first place. And so, at present, I'm for the
[image 10]
physical presence of the painting and for deep space of the picture, extravagance and restraint, the personal and the impersonal, the girl and the "form", my cake and the taste of it. I am trying to make these things work in exactly the way that I have tried to make paint abstraction work.
[upside down]
I don't object to verbalizations about painting or feel that words can damage it. But I am [strikethrough] simply [/strikethrough] wary of the scant and often absurd relationship between painter's works and their verbal stance and self-justifications.
[image 11]
The human image functions for me as a kind of key to the painting.
[line break]
The human image [strikethrough] with [/strikethrough] in painting [strikethrough] can carry [/strikethrough] lends itself to a concentration of meanings as opposed to the relatively diffuse and limited meaning of painted environment. However I find it possible also to concentrate or unify pieces of the environment. In this way a window may become a unit or piece of outdoors. The indoors becomes a world in itself and the figure becomes yet another. I'm fascinated with the arrangement of these elements. I can set them out separately, juxtapose them in various sequence, overlap them and [strikethrough] in some cases [/strikethrough] mingle them. [strikethrough] Also interesting to me is the power of the figure to establish, fix, and color its invironment [sic]. A given figure (in this [/strikethrough]
[image 12]
[strikethrough] I'm interested in
I find curious what [double strikethrough] objects [/double strikethrough] things I pass on as objects in my painting. I can paint coffee pots and cups to my satisfaction, if I think of the pot as a tea pot I can't—bottles are out altogether [/strikethrough]