The Berkeley Years

Richard Diebenkorn, Berkeley #44 © The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.

Richard Diebenkorn’s The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is the artist’s pivotal output that gave him the recognition he is known for. While I recognized this Bay Area artist’s work expressionist landscapes, getting to know this artist’s oeuvre is always wonderful. I found his abstract expressionistic paintings reminiscent of aerial landscapes, with their swaths of blue and areas of green and muted colors, delightful for their gesture of the act of painting, exploring of medium, color, composition and texture without representation. One can see how he brushed pigment over layer upon layer of paint, scrubbing here, dripping there, delineating with paint until the entire piece worked, as if witnessing the act of painting. While I am not an abstract painter, this portion of the exhibit was the most inspiring. His work later transitioned into figurative and representational work, but it is work to paint that delighted this viewer.

Richard Diebenkorn, Berkeley #22 © The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.

Diebenkorn’s organic process underscored that he was not trying to realize a pre-conceived idea, but rather to discover a compelling image through the painting process. He noted, ‘What I was really up to in painting, what I enjoyed almost exclusively, was altering-changing what was before me—by way of subtracting or juxtaposition or superimposition of different ideas.’  --exhibition text.

Richard Diebenkorn, Cityscape #1 © The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.

Richard Diebenkorn, Seawall © Fine Arts Museums of SF

Richard Diebenkorn, Interior with Doorway © The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.

“I’m really a traditional painter not an avant-guard at all, I wanted to follow a tradition and extend it.”

© Rose Mandel