Richard Diebenkorn

Beloved artist Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993) is best known for paintings that powerfully evoke the California coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles. A West Coast native, Diebenkorn captured the light and color of the land and sea in a way that resonates with anyone who has spent time there. This volume contains a biographical introduction by Sarah C. Bancroft, an essay on Diebenkorn’s influences by Steven Nash, and an essay on Diebenkorn’s works on paper by Edith Devaney. Together these bring the artist’s rich, four-decade-long career into focus. The book covers Diebenkorn’s three distinct periods, which saw him gain recognition as a leading Abstract Expressionist in the early 1950s, then turn to figurative painting, before embarking on a highly successful period of abstract paintings and drawings— the Ocean Park Series. It is the perfect introduction to the work of this seminal California artist.

Sarah C. Bancroft is associate director of curatorial affairs at the Austin, Texas, art non-profit Fluent-Collaborative.Steven Nash is JoAnn McGrath executive director of Palm Springs Art Museum.Edith Devaney is head of summer exhibition and curator of contemporary projects at the Royal Academy of Arts.