Diebenkorn, << DEE buhn kawrn, >> Richard (1922-1993), was an American painter who shifted between abstract and figurative styles during his career. Diebenkorn was also noted for his drawings and etchings.
Diebenkorn is probably best known for more than 140 large abstract paintings known as the Ocean Park series, which he began in 1967. These paintings have no recognizable subject matter but are studies in color, light, shape, and spatial relationships. The large rectangular areas of luminous color in the series and in many of his other works reflect his admiration for the French artist Henri Matisse.
Richard Clifford Diebenkorn, Jr., was born on April 22, 1922, in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in San Francisco. During the 1940’s, he studied art at Stanford University and the California School of Fine Arts before earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico in 1951. His early paintings typically were interiors and still lifes. But in the late 1940’s, under the influence of his teachers Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, Diebenkorn turned to the Abstract Expressionist style.
Diebenkorn lived in Berkeley, California, from 1953 to 1955, where he painted a series of abstract landscapes known as the Berkeley series. About 1955, he returned to San Francisco and became a leader of the Bay Area Figurative School. This group of artists included Elmer Bischoff and David Park. Their works depicted recognizable figures but were painted with the vigorous brushstrokes of the Abstract Expressionists. Diebenkorn’s representative works of this time include Figure on Porch (1959) and Interior with View of Buildings (1962). Window (1967) was one of his final figurative paintings before his permanent return to the abstract style. Many of his abstract works display a technique called pentimento, in which one image shows through another overlying image.
From 1966 to 1988, Diebenkorn lived near Santa Monica, California. The Ocean Park series was named for Diebenkorn’s studio there. He died on March 30, 1993.
