Richard Diebenkorn- American Abstract Expressionist

Richard Diebenkorn was one of the first artists to really inspire me.  I was in my second year of grad school when another grad student suggested I check out his work.  I went to the campus library, and picked up a few books on him and spent the next few days studying his paintings and works on paper.  It took awhile for me to grow to appreciate his Ocean Park series for which he is most known, but I was immediately taken by his still life work.  I loved the paint quality, and light/reflected light in his paintings of scissors and knives.

Richard Diebenkorn was an American Abstract Expressionist Painter.  He was born in 1922 in Portland, Oregon (near where I grew up) and died in 1993 (just a year before I graduated high school).  By 1976 (the year I was born) Diebenkorn was generally regarded as a well established American Master.

His body of work is enormous and covers a range of themes including abstract works, nonrepresentational works, figurative works, still life and landscape.  His work can be understood as a series of periods including his "wartime work", Sausalito Period, Albuquerque Period, Urbana Period,and the Berkeley Period.  

In 1966, he and his wife Phyllis moved to Santa Monica, where Diebenkorn accepted a teaching position at UCLA.  His studio was located in a neighborhood near the beach known as Ocean Park, and it was here he embarked on the series of paintings and drawings known as the Ocean Park works.

Images:

Cityscape I (Landscape No. 1)

1963

Oil on canvas

60 1/4 x 50 1/2 in

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

image URL http://www.artchive.com/artchive/d/diebenkorn/thumb/cityscape_i.jpg

Ocean Park No. 115

1979

Oil on canvas

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/d/diebenkorn/thumb/ocean_park_115.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0mCfGAVc8x76KkKAFfJ33gXKy33Fdq9l0EP3yNknpQTvX0kd0A7zEMS4MicfTlAa08bPPOd0q-wA5R8itR4ehh5x3f5NtFA9-FRsXOI5mx64rlgbXaR-3PzzqPA1QycekIZPLiamAuas9/s320/scissors.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFaHMHwX-q8BComfE2XLAMlDsWgIT0SiVzn__isj7YJbVaojn5ipKaudh0iD6-DX6j_ks7mnw9L6Q35_85-BfWuFcEC2n8JfAKyd6tyni8awJav1wSPzRBsNZe0tXQHsJ4JN8FjpaQsxC/s320/Diebenkorn_GlassesButts_NatGallery.jpg

"Cigarette butts and Glasses", 1967


Information and images from:
Richard Diebenkorn Catalogue Raisonne
Paintana
Artchive