Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled

Untitled

© The Estate of Richard Diebenkorn

Untitled
Untitled
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Untitled
Date1972
PlaceUnited States
MediumA: Acrylic and gouache on wove paper, B: Wash with cut and pasted paper on wove paper, C: Acrylic, charcoal and cut and pasted on wove paper
DimensionsSheet (.A): 24 15/16 × 17 15/16 in. (63.4 × 45.6 cm)
Sheet (.B): 24 7/8 × 17 7/8 in. (63.2 × 45.5 cm)
Sheet (.C): 24 7/8 × 17 7/8 in. (63.2 × 45.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund and an anonymous donor
Object number94.109.A-.C
Not on view

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Description

In 1966, after accepting a teaching position at UCLA, Richard Diebenkorn began working in a studio near the beach in Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood. The artist soon embarked on a new cycle of paintings and drawings, collectively known as the Ocean Park works.


 The light and architecture of the beach community had a profound influence on Diebenkorn's style and imagery. He abandoned his figurative vocabulary and invented an abstract language, partially reverting to his early interest in landscape-based abstraction, but rendered from an aerial perspective. Diebenkorn extrapolated the internal architecture of his Ocean Park works from the stark compositions of two paintings by Henri Matisse: View of Notre Dame and French Window at Collioure.


 In this three-part work from 1972, Diebenkorn pares his Ocean Park imagery down to its most essential components. Executed in monochrome, except for the third (green) panel, Untitled is the artistís homage to the austerity of Matisse's window paintings. Realizing the centrality of this triptych to his oeuvre, Diebenkorn kept it in the living room of his Santa Monica home, a touchstone of his quarter-century-long Ocean Park series.


Provenance Research Ongoing Exhibition HistoryExhibited:"Perspectives in Texas Collections: California Light," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX January 21 - March 5, 19951-21 to 3-5-1995, (LN:95.22)

"Modern and Contemporary Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," MFAH, Brown Foundation Gallery, December 8, 2007-March 2, 2008.

"Around Midcentury in the United States," The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Aug. 20, 2021 - Jan. 2, 2022. [Second Installation/Light-Sensitive Rotation: Kinder Building 207: No Catalog]
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
.A, left sheet: Inscribed in pencil, verso of sheet , upper left: "TRIPTYCH / Series / 1 [1 is circled] 2 3". Additionally inscribed in pencil, upper right, and circled in pencil: "6B". Finally inscribed in pencil, upper left, circled in pencil, but scratched through: "9".

.B, center sheet: Inscribed in pencil, verso of sheet, upper left, and circled in pencil: "8". Additionally inscribed in pencil, verso of sheet, upper center: "Series / 1 2 [2 is circled] 3"

.C, left sheet: Inscribed in pencil, verso of sheet, upper left: "Series 1 2 3 [3 is circled]"
Initialed and dated on recto and lower left of each sheet in pencil: "RD72"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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