|
 |
Student Union Collection |
Richard Diebenkorn
American, 1922 - 1993
Blue
Club, 1981
aquatint, spit bite, softground
37 ½” x 30 ½”
|
|
The color intaglio print
Blue Club (1981) by Richard Diebenkorn may surprise viewers who
are familiar with his rich expansive treatment of California
light and landscape. Diebenkorn is most recognized for his series
of 140 paintings known as "Ocean Park," the location
of his studio in Santa Monica. However he started to explore
the playing card shapes of clubs and spades in the 1970s, at
first in monoprints, eventually in color aquatints.
Although Diebenkorn is closely associated with California, especially
the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, he is an artist who
resists easy labels. From the 1940s through the 1990s, he made
dramatic changes in his work, starting as a realist in the Edward
Hopper tradition, to his West Coast response to Abstract Expressionism
in which landscape predominates, to the Bay Area figurative painting,
and ultimately to geometric abstraction.
Educated at Stanford, New Mexico, and California art schools,
he was influenced by the works of Picasso, Miro, Motherwell,
and Matisse. He taught painting for more than two decades with
few breaks--his mastery of color, surface, and composition influencing
several generations of West Coast artists.
|
|
