Richard Diebenkorn Foundation

Urbana #1

Date:

1953

Dimensions:

45 5/8 x 67 1/2 in. (115.9 x 171.5 cm)

Signed:

"RD 53" lower left

CR number:

1244

RD number:

1094

San Francisco Museum of Art, Three Bay Region Artists: Ruth Armer, Richard Diebenkorn, Ralph Du Casse 17 August 1954 - 05 September 1954
Pasadena Art Museum, Calif., Richard Diebenkorn 06 September 1960 - 06 October 1960

This painting was the subject of a lawsuit by former trustees of the Pasadena Art Museum (then in the process of becoming the Norton Simon Museum) when Mr. Simon sent it to auction in 1980. "In looking through the Christie's auction catalogue before the sale, Robert Rowan noticed two works that he had donated to the museum: Richard Diebenkorn's 'Urbana #1' and Franz Kline's 'Composition 1948.' Rowan, along with two former trustees, Alfred Esberg and Gifford Phillips, sued to stop the sale, charging the museum with depleting its assets." The trial took place in September of 1981 and was dismissed, upon which the painting was again placed at auction (Sara Campbell, Collector Without Walls, pp. 194–95).

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