the last large scale painting in the ocean park cycle
deibenkorn created the ocean park cycle in santa monica CA from 1967-1988
photo credit art in the studio
or, for his cityscapes...
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | cityscape, landscape 1 | oil on canvas | 1963
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit famsf | (c) 2013 the richard diebenkorn foundation
along with joan mitchell and helen frankenthaler, he is one of my favorite post-war american artists.
so, of course we attended the preview of richard diebenkorn: the berkeley years-1953-1966, an exhibition of over 130 works that opened at the de young museum in san francisco CA on 22 june 2013.
my husband, bob, and i enjoyed the exhibition so much that we are going to see it again before it closes on 29 september 2013.
diebenkorn's work is often grouped into periods according to where he lived because his location often inspired his work. diebenkorn lived in berkeley CA from 1953 until 1966, when he moved to santa monica CA.
although diebenkorn's berkeley period paintings and drawings established him as an abstract artist, his berkeley period actually included two phases: an abstract phase from 1953-1956, followed by a representational phase from 1955-1967.
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #3 | oil on canvas | 1953
fine art museums of san francisco (famsf) | san francisco CA
photo credit famsf | (c) 2013 the richard diebenkorn foundation
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #5 | oil on canvas | 1953
private collection
photo credit christie's
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #7 | oil on canvas | 1953
mildred lane kemper art museum | washington university | st louis MO
photo credit kemper art museum
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is
being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated
catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the
exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root
Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive
Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial
Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national
and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of
California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject
of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and
many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to
examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and
his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of
exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract
landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area,
followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a
leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way
again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in
1966.
These transformations represent one
of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and
Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No
previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the
motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different
modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing
project now underway has brought to light many works from this period
that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a
major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn
Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student
and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco
provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark
Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the
Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style,
marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of
paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was
inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their
dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period
he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of
drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in
what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this
work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings
of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are
deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the
years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the
paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal
relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark
and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with
the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of
recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these
matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See
more at:
http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #8 | oil on canvas | 1954
north carolina museum of art (ncma) | raleigh NC
photo credit ncma
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #12 | oil on canvas | 1954
the phillips collection | washington DC
photo credit the phillips collection
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #15 | oil on canvas | 1954
new mexico museum of art | santa fe NM
photo credit new mexico museum of art
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #19 | oil on canvas | 1954
university of arizona museum of art (uama) | tuscon AZ
photo credit uama
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #22 | oil on canvas | 1954
hirshorn museum and sculpture garden | smithsonian institution | washington DC
photo credit hirshorn museum and sculpture garden
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #33 | oil on canvas | 1954
private collection
photo credit wikipaintings
'what i was really up to in painting,
what i enjoyed exclusively, was altering-
changing what was before me-
by way of subtracting
or juxtaposition
or superimposition
of different ideas.'
of different ideas.'
-richard diebenkorn
diebenkorn composed berkeley #23 in 1954, and then reworked it in 1955.
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #23 | oil on canvas | 1955
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation
in 1957, articles in ARTnews* and LIFE magazines expanded diebenkorn's national reputation as an abstract artist.
SWEEPING PATTERNS
FROM CALIFORNIA FIELDS
Brought up in San Francisco, Richard Dieben-
korn became a leading member of a group of
West Coast painters working in the imported
East Coast style of abstract-expressionism. But
when he moved away from the group
to live in New Mexico, he began to create a
less abstract art based on recollections of the
California landscape he had left behind. Now
back in California and settled in Berkeley, the
35-year-old artist has poured out a vigorous
and colorful array of paintings like the 1955
canvas below. Painted with rough strokes, its
broad forms recall the sweeping patterns of
the fertile lands (left) north of San Francisco.
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #44 | oil on canvas | 1955
private collection
photo credits google books and famsf | (c) 2013 the richard diebenkorn foundation
but, by then, his work was shifting from abstraction to representation. diebenkorn described chabot valley, painted in 1955, as his first representational landscape painting.
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | chabot valley | oil on canvas | 1955
collection of christopher diebenkorn
photo credit wikipaintings
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation
norton simon museum | pasadena CA
photo credit norton simon museum | (c) 2008 estate of richard diebenkorn
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | interior with doorway | oil on canvas | 1962
pennsylvania academy of the fine arts (pafa) | philadelphia PA
photo credit pafa
interior with view of buildings combines the four major themes of diebenkorn's berkeley period representational work: landscapes, figures, still life, and interiors.
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | interior with view of buildings | oil on canvas | 1962
cincinnati art museum | cincinnati OH
photo credit cincinnati art museum
in 1964, the US state department invited diebenkorn to visit the soviet union on a cultural exchange grant. while visiting the soviet union, he saw the extraordinary matisse collections at the pushkin state museum of fine arts in moscow and the state hermitage museum in leningrad, which were then inaccessible to most of the world.
even though this was not the artist's first exposure to the work of henri matisse,** this experience influenced his late berkeley period drawings and paintings, which incorporated matisse-like decorative patterns, saturated colors, flat picture planes, and geometric compositions.
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | recollections of a visit to leningrad | oil on canvas | 1965
private collection
photo credit famsf | (c) 2013 the richard diebenkorn foundation
diebenkorn also saw the henri matisse. retrospective 1966. exhibition at the university of california, los angeles (ucla) art gallery.
henri matisse (1869-1954) | zulma | gouache and cut and pasted paper | 1950
statens museum for kunst (smk) | copenhagen, denmark
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | untitled (yellow collage) | gouache and cut and pasted paper | 1966
collection of gretchen and richard grant
photo credits smk | (c) succession h. matisse/billedkunst copydan 2012 and famsf | (c) 2013 the richard diebenkorn foundation
does diebenkorn's late berkeley period work seem like a transition from representation to abstraction?
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | ocean park #19 | oil on canvas | 1968
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation
2. the pretty, initial position, which falls short of completeness, is not to be valued-except as a stimulus for further moves.
3. do search. but in order to find other than what is searched for.
4. use and respond to the initial fresh qualities, but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. don't 'discover' a subject-of any kind.
6. somehow don't be bored-but if you must, use it in action. use its destructive potential.
7. mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position.
8. keep thinking about polyanna.
9. tolerate chaos.
10. be careful only in a perverse way.
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation
notes to myself on beginning a painting
1. attempt what is not certain. certainty may or may not come later. it may then be a valuable delusion.2. the pretty, initial position, which falls short of completeness, is not to be valued-except as a stimulus for further moves.
3. do search. but in order to find other than what is searched for.
4. use and respond to the initial fresh qualities, but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. don't 'discover' a subject-of any kind.
6. somehow don't be bored-but if you must, use it in action. use its destructive potential.
7. mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position.
8. keep thinking about polyanna.
9. tolerate chaos.
10. be careful only in a perverse way.
-richard diebenkorn
*'diebenkorn paints a picture', ARTnews, volume 56 number 3, may 1957, pages 44-47, 54-55.
**in 1952, diebenkorn saw the matisse retrospective, organized by alfred barr for the museum of modern art in new york NY, at the municipal art gallery in los angeles CA.
10/26/13 - 02/16/14
Annenberg Wing
Palm Springs Art Museum
Annenberg Wing
Palm Springs Art Museum
Richard Diebenkorn, Seawall,
1957, oil on canvas, © 2013 The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, Fine
Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Phyllis G. Diebenkorn 1995.96
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is
being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated
catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the
exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root
Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive
Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial
Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national
and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of
California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject
of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and
many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to
examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and
his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of
exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract
landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area,
followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a
leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way
again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in
1966.
These transformations represent one
of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and
Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No
previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the
motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different
modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing
project now underway has brought to light many works from this period
that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a
major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn
Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student
and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco
provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark
Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the
Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style,
marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of
paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was
inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their
dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period
he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of
drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in
what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this
work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings
of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are
deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the
years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the
paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal
relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark
and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with
the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of
recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these
matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is
being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated
catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the
exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root
Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive
Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial
Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national
and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of
California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject
of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and
many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to
examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and
his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of
exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract
landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area,
followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a
leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way
again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in
1966.
These transformations represent one
of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and
Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No
previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the
motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different
modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing
project now underway has brought to light many works from this period
that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a
major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn
Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student
and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco
provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark
Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the
Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style,
marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of
paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was
inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their
dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period
he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of
drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in
what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this
work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings
of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are
deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the
years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the
paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal
relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark
and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with
the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of
recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these
matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See
more at:
http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is
being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated
catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the
exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root
Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive
Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial
Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national
and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of
California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject
of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and
many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to
examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and
his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of
exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract
landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area,
followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a
leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way
again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in
1966.
These transformations represent one
of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and
Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No
previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the
motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different
modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing
project now underway has brought to light many works from this period
that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a
major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn
Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student
and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco
provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark
Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the
Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style,
marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of
paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was
inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their
dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period
he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of
drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in
what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this
work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings
of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are
deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the
years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the
paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal
relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark
and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with
the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of
recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these
matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See
more at:
http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
This
exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between
1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley,
California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in
his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich,
natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a
representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area
Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after
the artist’s move to southern California in 1966. - See more at:
http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is
being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated
catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the
exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root
Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive
Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial
Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national
and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of
California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject
of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and
many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to
examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and
his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of
exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract
landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area,
followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a
leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way
again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in
1966.
These transformations represent one
of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and
Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No
previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the
motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different
modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing
project now underway has brought to light many works from this period
that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a
major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn
Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student
and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco
provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark
Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the
Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style,
marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of
paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was
inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their
dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period
he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of
drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in
what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this
work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings
of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are
deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the
years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the
paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal
relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark
and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with
the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of
recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these
matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See
more at:
http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
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