Richard Diebenkorn Art
Known for his gestural yet geometric depictions of American landscapes, Richard Diebenkorn blended Abstract Expressionism and figurative painting like no other artist before him.
Born in Portland, Oregon, but raised in San Francisco, California, Diebenkorn studied art history at Stanford University before enlisting in the Marines. Afterward, on the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) in 1946, where he became an instructor a year later. In 1950, he pursued a master’s degree at the University of New Mexico.
He lived and worked for a period during the postwar years in New York City, where he met Mark Rothko and immersed himself in Robert Motherwell’s art. However, the perspective that Diebenkorn brought to his paintings and prints was firmly rooted in the West Coast. His canvases, even when he worked in an abstract style, evoked California’s sandy coastlines and varied topography — one of the attributes that set him apart from contemporaries such as Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston.
Diebenkorn is acclaimed for his representational paintings; he was a founding member of the Bay Area Figurative movement, along with David Park and Elmer Bischoff. But he is best known for his lyrical abstract work. He explored abstraction during the 1950s before switching to figuration — creating still lifes and working with live models — and then returned to abstraction, developing a distinctive style that was entirely his own.
When Diebenkorn moved to Southern California, he began to teach at UCLA and commenced work on what would become his enduring “Ocean Park” series, named for the Santa Monica suburb he called home as of 1966 and inspired by the view from his studio — in particular, the light on the landscape outside the windows as framed by the windows themselves. The influence of Henri Matisse loomed large too. Diebenkorn had been an admirer of Matisse’s work since his days in the military, and in 1964, a trip to see the French painter’s work at the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad proved monumental for him.
The “Ocean Park” series, created over the span of two decades, comprised more than 140 large paintings with gentle, shimmering compositions of color arranged in geometric harmony, with the texture of Diebenkorn’s constant reworking of the paint coming through.
“All paintings start out of a mood, out of a relationship with things or people, out of a complete visual impression,” Diebenkorn once said. Today, his work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Phillips Collection, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and more.
Find authentic Richard Diebenkorn art on 1stDibs.
1960s Post-Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1980s Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Color, Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint
Late 20th Century Color-Field Richard Diebenkorn Art
Aquatint
1980s Abstract Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1990s Richard Diebenkorn Art
Paper
1950s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Paper, Ink
20th Century Abstract Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching, Aquatint
1970s Post-Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1960s Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1990s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph, Color
1980s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching, Aquatint
1980s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Woodcut
1990s Contemporary Richard Diebenkorn Art
Drypoint, Aquatint
20th Century Abstract Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
Mid-20th Century American Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1960s American Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Aquatint
1980s Post-War Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1980s American Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1960s Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1990s Neo-Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Washi Paper, Woodcut
1960s Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1960s Abstract Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1990s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Aquatint
1990s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Aquatint
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph, Offset
1970s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1970s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1980s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph, Offset
20th Century Post-Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1970s Color-Field Richard Diebenkorn Art
Monoprint, Pencil, Etching
1970s Post-Modern Richard Diebenkorn Art
Etching
1980s Abstract Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1980s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Woodcut
1960s Post-War Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1980s Unknown Modern Vintage Richard Diebenkorn Art
Paper
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1990s Contemporary Richard Diebenkorn Art
Drypoint, Aquatint
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
1960s Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Richard Diebenkorn Art
Drypoint
1970s Pop Art Richard Diebenkorn Art
Woodcut
2010s Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph, Offset
1960s Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph
2010s Richard Diebenkorn Art
Lithograph, Offset