Another opinion on the Richard Diebenkorn exhibition at the Royal Academy. For another – less positive – review click here
One Diebenkorn painting is a rare sight in Europe, let alone a career-spanning exhibition. His works are almost entirely in American collections and there has previously only been one exhibition of his work in the UK, the 1991 retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery. Unlike the ‘New York School’ of Abstract Expressionism whose works were fashionable commodities either side of the Atlantic Diebenkorn, who was based largely in California and was somewhat more independent, never experienced this and is to this day relatively unknown to the European public. However, he has long been considered a ‘painter’s painter’, admired by his peers and contemporary painters alike. This exhibition at the Royal Academy seeks to address this imbalance and the result is a three room display of Diebenkorn’s paintings and works on paper mapping his journey from abstraction to figuration and back again.
Albuquerque #4, 1951. Oil on canvas, Saint Louis Art Museum.
The first room of the exhibition shows Diebenkorn’s early abstract period, made between 1950 and 1956 in Albuquerque, Urbana and Berkley as he moved across the country to attend college or to find employment. These works show all the qualities of Abstract Expressionism that dominated the American art scene at the time. There are obvious similarities to Franz Kline and Willem De Kooning, seen in The Disintegrating Pig and Albuquerque No.4 1951, with the rapid application of paint with large dripping brushstrokes, the fields of saturated colour overlap and thick black lines delineate curvaceous shapes and the suggestion of form that deconstructs before us.
It is apparent from these works that his environment had a huge impact on his painting and in particular his palette. Remote and snowy Urbana, Illinois gives us the icy and rigid Urbana No.2 (The Archer). His time in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is characterised by arid and almost stifling oranges. Berkeley No. 5 shows a significant point in his work and is the first time we can see the capturing of his great motif, Californian light. The work from this period is exciting and punchy without ever feeling resolved, perhaps the work of a talented painter asking questions and tirelessly searching for the answers.
This constant questioning is the driving force for what is considered Diebenkorn’s Second Period, a shift into figuration starting in 1956. A highly unfashionable move at the time, this extraordinary leap leads Diebenkorn to some fascinating conclusions, far from his early paintings yet always distinctly his own.
The transition began when he joined friends at a weekly life-drawing group. Whilst there is nothing particularly special about these attempts to represent the human form, what is remarkable is the bravery and commitment he made in making this shift and the incredible works it resulted in. The portraits and life drawings from the mid 50’s have a stillness and seem to lack a the empathy or understanding that is the signifier of great portrait painters. For example Girl on Terrace 1956 uses the space within the composition in a way that only someone with an abstract background would think to do. It is dynamic and challenging yet always feels like it is coming from an artist who has not yet found comfort in figuration. Often these early portraits (which owe a lot to his appreciation of Hopper and Bonnard) seem distracted by the internal/external environment, as if Diebenkorn were more interested with the manipulation of the physical context than with the sitter and the result feels like a compromise.
His cityscapes however are stunning and an important contribution to the medium. The geometry of the buildings, grass verges and roads are blurred with the indescribable but perfectly executed Californian light, creating masterpieces that dance on the line between representation and abstraction. Cityscape No. 1 1963 shows a quintessential Northern Californian street it’s with modern architecture resting on a dramatic geography of undulating hills as bands of evening light and shadow fragment the physical space.
During this period Diebenkorn also produced many beautiful still life paintings. Smaller in scale than much of his previous work, the fluidity of the paint but the precision of his forms creates a bizarre combination of freedom and restraint, simplicity and complexity. These visions of everyday objects, scissors, books, cups, fruit show the influence of Matisse and Cezanne whilst keeping an originality unique to Diebenkorn. This direct influence of European artists set him apart from his American contemporaries by giving him a distinctive sensibility.
The Ocean Park series has come to define Diebenkorn’s late period, seen in the third and final room of this exhibition. In 1967 he moved to Santa Monica and found a studio in the Ocean Park neighbourhood. As before, this change of environment triggered a change in his work and led his return to abstraction. The 145 paintings and nearly 500 works on paper he produced during the last 26 years of his life show an artist who has obtained creative enlightenment. The clarity and precision of his decision-making in these works shows him to be a true master of his medium. Unlike his early abstract period these paintings are refined whilst remaining stylistically bold. The messy, saturated, curvaceous shapes have become subtle, reconstructions of his fields of colour with the serenity of stained-glass windows. The paintings show what he has learnt during his figurative years but there is a sense of liberation in the fact that they are no longer tied to representation. Ocean Park No.79 1975 exemplifies this period, a top-heavy grid composition with colours reflecting the sky, sea and sand of his surroundings. There is a noticeable absence of black and an entire rejection of dimensional depth, which allows the paint to sit lightly on the surface of the canvas giving it an impossibly airy quality.
As a tutor in the 50’s committed to abstraction Diebenkorn told his students ‘if you get an image, try to destroy it’. This having been said before his move to figuration, it might be considered capricious. Although looking at his career as a whole this is indeed what he did. Diebenkorn searched for an image, found it and then destroyed it. The brilliance of this exhibition is that it allows us to see this as a logical progression of a master painter.
by Heath Lowndes
This exhibition is open until 7th June at The Royal Academy, Piccadilly. 10am – 6pm Monday to Sunday
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