I was not aware of Richard Diebenkorn’s work until I saw it this week at the Royal Academy of Arts. Not surprising since this is only the second exhibition of its kind to be held in the UK since 1992. The exhibition explores three main periods in his career: The Albuquerque series, The Berkeley Series, and The Ocean Park series. The significance of these phases is their relationship to his varied environments corresponding to the works. It also provides an insight into how the artist progressed from one style to the next and back again.
An American Artist, he moved from one university to the next and concluded his studies after serving in the military. In 1950 the artist and his family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. His works of this period allude to the sizzling hot climate. The colours of pink, orange and ochre give thoughts of the terrain and sun. As a young child he was influenced by the Bayeux Tapestry which can be seen in the form of symbols lurking in the corners of his painitngs amongst the large splashes of colour.
In the mid 1950’s Diebenkorn began experimenting with the figurative. We can rarely discern whom the figure is although it is rumoured he may have used friends and family as models. The figures only act as a pointer to the rest of their environment. In Girl on a Terrace she serves to break up the lines of the painting; the table to her lower left balanced by the blue/grey land to her upper right. In some areas of the painting such as her skirt the previous layer of paint is left to show through. It is not surprising to learn he counts Edward Hopper (1882-1967) as one of his influences. The composition is not dissimilar; the girl in a room looking out at a landscape beyond the window or the man sitting at the bar, but the clear relationship to their environment or landscape.
In 1966 Diebenkorn and his family had moved to California; it was at this time he would commence The Ocean Park Series Although these are some his most abstract pieces of work and therefore do not directly represent the landscape of Santa Monica, they give off a sense of calm. The palette of subdued yellows and blues makes the viewer think of sun, sea and sand. He had abandoned figurative altogether and returned to abstract in an even more flat form.
Diebenkorn also made much smaller pieces of work on the back of old cigar boxes. This has prompted me to try a few smaller scale paintings. I am beginning to think again about the composition and how other elements beside the face can aid in a sense of atmosphere and place.
