RichaRd diebenkoRn The healdsburg Years 1988–1993
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RICHARD DIEBENKORN THE HEALDSBURG YEARS, 1988–1993
Richard diebenkorn in his healdsburg, california studio in 1988
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again, new diRections steven a. nash
d o s e a R c h . b u t i n o R d e R t o f i n d o t h e R t h a n w h at i s s e a R c h e d f o R . —RichaRd diebenkoRn N o T e s T o m Y s e l f o N b e g i N N i N g a pa i N T i N g
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When Richard diebenkorn departed Los angeles in 1988 and moved to the San Francisco bay area with his wife, Phyllis, he was returning to the locale of his boyhood, early training, and achievement of national fame, earned first through landscape-inflected abstractions and then his figurative work. he had decided, in 1966, to the surprise of many, to relocate from northern california to Los angeles, where he soon embarked on one of the most renowned chapters in his prolific career, that of the ocean Park abstractions, so named for the small coastal town where he set up two studios. The move back north, therefore, came on the shoulders of Richard diebenkorn’s healdsburg, california studio, 1993
twenty years of extraordinary productivity and success. but, as with other turning points in his life and artistic development, diebenkorn experienced a need for change. he said later that he had felt more and more “hemmed in” by the congestion in Los angeles. change was already evident in the ocean 5
Polaroid of Richard diebenkorn taken in his healdsburg studio c. 1992 for Michael kimmelman, “a Life outside,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1992
Park pictures, and the old impulse to search for something new in life and art struck again. but search for what? it was an open-ended question, in keeping with his self-admonition to embrace unexpected “finds” on the road to discovery. in a statement that has become famous, he told an interviewer in 1989 that he could not know what might come next in his art, but he had confidence that “the landscape will sometime lead me to something. it usually has.” ii The diebenkorns settled in a classic old farmhouse along the Russian River, close to healdsburg, in an idyllic setting of vineyards, open fields, and forested hills. For his studio, Richard remodeled a building on the grounds, creating a glorious white space with high ceilings and abundant natural light. From this site and also his sessions at crown Point Press, the distinguished art publishers in San Francisco, there emanated over the next few years a series of works, all on paper and ranging from modest to midsize in scale, that were rooted in the aesthetics of the ocean Park paintings and drawings but show a concerted effort to move in new directions. These efforts were tragically cut short by diebenkorn’s death in 1993 (he had undergone two heart-valve operations in 1989). no paintings survive from the healdsburg years, but it is safe to say that, had health and time allowed, the explorations in diebenkorn’s graphic works would have eventually influenced his paintings as well. it is fascinating to study the works from this last phase of his career: to see a restless and inquiring mind at work and to move vicariously through the confluence of new ideas and explorations that were beginning to open different stylistic pathways. Very little has been written about diebenkorn’s healdsburg years, leaving a gap in the critical literature on his art. an interview with him on the television program Sunday Morning on cbS news, in 1989, provides interesting background on his life in healdsburg, his daily surroundings, and some of his thoughts on art at that stage of his career,iii and notes by kathan brown, founder and owner of crown Point Press, draw a fascinating picture of her collaborations with diebenkorn in her studio and his working methods in the production of several outstanding prints.iv brief comments by 6
Rd 2547
Jane Livingston and John elderfield on the work of the late years also provide aperçus into his development from the mid-1980s onward.v as elderfield states succinctly, “The paintings on canvas, as well as on paper, became tougher and bolder through the 1980s, more tolerant of discordant shapes, and more urgently vernacular in the form of their utterance.”vi diebenkorn’s need to move beyond the ocean Park works became more and more apparent as the decade progressed and his drawings, especially, began to display a loosening of form and a breakdown of strict geometry, and as the poetry of calm resolution gave way gradually to something more pressing, and, one might even say, primal. We can only speculate on what lay behind these changes, but fatigue with repetition, new physical surroundings, and changes in age and health all may have played a role. The effects are not dramatic but are cumulative, and together alert viewers that they stand on different expressive ground in diebenkorn’s progressive search for the “rightness” in his art that he often mentioned as a goal.
a comparison of several selected works demonstrates the momentum of this evolution. a number of mixed-media works on paper from 1985 and 1986 began to show a disruption of standard ocean Park formats (e.g. Rd 2547);vii a series of monotypes made in april of 1988, shortly before the move to healdsburg, expanded further in new directions;viii and Untitled (c. 1988-91), in the present exhibition (p. 21), hit a very different stride. here, the geometry of the ocean Park period is thoroughly subverted by a fluid, gestural blocking in of cloudy zones of color in a way that takes us almost full circle in diebenkorn’s development, back to early abstractions from the late-40s, which were made largely in response to Mark Rothko’s contemporaneous cloudlike paintings. The track of change in the late works was far from a straight-line trajectory, however, with different experiments and variations appearing that show 7
the breadth of diebenkorn’s search. a number of pieces, for example, cleave more closely than others to ocean Park conventions. catalogue numbers Rd 2247, Rd 2505, and Rd 2264 (pp. 28, 15, 25) all share the traditional rectilinear divisions of space, soft application of light tones, and horizontal lines across the tops of compositions suggestive of a high topographical horizon. but we can sense immediately that things are different in these works than in comparable examples from ten years earlier. in catalogue number Rd 2247 (p. 28), the upper compositional blocks are pulled vertically off the bottom edge, giving them a sense of levitation and tension that does not appear in earlier ocean Park paintings or drawings. and catalogue number Rd 2505 (p. 15) has a retrospective quality that reminds us of some of diebenkorn’s abstractions from the early 50s, works often seen as deriving from views of the landscape as seen from airplane windows, with the flattened ground plane neatly divided into different rectangular segments and colors that evoke vegetation, water, and raw earth. indeed, the lush and beautiful landscape surrounding the diebenkorns in healdsburg seems to weave into the late works as a frequent reference, never literally, but through impressions and sensorial memories. in 1989, diebenkorn commented, “i think that what an artist does is all about what’s around him,” leaving little doubt about the importance of environment to him.ix consider the all-green gouache and collage in this exhibition from 1988 or later (p. 20). Green was one of diebenkorn’s most frequently used colors in the ocean Park series and had always been a sign in his art, no matter how abstract it became, of nature and its richness. but in the ocean Park works, his greens are framed, sliced, and constricted in a way that’s seemingly related to the urban environment of Los angeles, where verdant nature occurs episodically and views of it are segmented by architecture and infrastructure. in this unusually minimalist gouache, the freshness of nature is everything. We are totally immersed in it, as if walking in a large field of lush grasses, even encountering curves that suggest the bending contours of land. 8
in some works from the period, a fastidious exploration of geometry predominates, with patterns reminiscent of quilts and flags. in the untitled gouache and graphite drawing from 1989 (p. 22), bars, triangles, and squares collide in a raucous interaction of contrasting shapes, directions, colors, and layers of depth. The work aligns much more with european constructivism than practically anything else in diebenkorn’s entire oeuvre. The large, horizontal painting on paper from 1992 (pp. 16-17) stretches this geometric approach into an aggressive play of stripes and horizontality, relating closely to a flaglike composition from a year earlier that embodies an almost dizzyingly pace of movement.x at the same time, there appears in the late works a darker mood and a deep discontent with stasis, as seen in particular in three works in the exhibition (pp. 13, 19, 24). all are Rd 473-aP1 relatively small but exhibit gutsy brushwork that pushes paint, form, and space around with a vigor that, again, looks back to diebenkorn’s abstract expressionist period. in the large, vertical gouache divided by horizontals and diagonals (p. 26), the tension between geometry and action is particularly vivid thanks to the richly textural and energetic paint handling. Moreover, these works are essays in monochromism, with palettes restricted mostly to grays, blacks, and off-whites, lending a nocturnal, ruminative mood far removed from the Matissian joie de vivre in so much of diebenkorn’s earlier work. in some cases, shapes seem to morph, dissolve, and slide around in perpetual unrest, as if we were peering through a microscope at some basic life form. even in works more bound to ocean Park traditions, such as catalogue number Rd 2507 (p. 18), elements appear to struggle to break away from tight definition. This impulse to reach beyond order and confinement could be seen as a metaphor for diebenkorn’s artistic ambitions at this point, but is, at any rate, one of the defining themes in these late works and shows up again in one of his most famous prints of the period, Flotsam, from 1991 (fig. illustration). here, a mêlée of small, discrete images and signs, some of them from past works, is scattered like flotsam and jetsam on water, with no definite up or down or resting place for the eye. all is in flux—sometimes a basic and necessary condition of change. if there is any doubt about this darkening mood being part of an understandable contemplation of mortality by diebenkorn, we have his small but powerful watercolor of a skull (p. 11), one of the most touching memento mori images in all of modern art. The skull sits atop a stand or table in a dark, confined space—monumental despite the diminutive size of the image. its orifices of eyes, nose, ear, and mouth jump out at the viewer with the same inky and lifeless black as the background. We are simultaneously enthralled by the delicacy of the deft handling of watercolors and unnerved by the bleak message so frankly posed. anyone who delves seriously into this period of experimentation is left, finally, with the aching question of where it all would have led. There are outstanding works here that begin to define another chapter in diebenkorn’s artistic life, a post–ocean Park chapter that, in its opening scenes, tells a story of personal quest and determination. We can speculate about the renewal of an expressionist vein in his work or the developments led by his attachment to nature, but, wherever his imagination might have taken him, we know the results would have honored the search. The large and powerful gouache and crayon painting that is mysteriously tagged at the bottom with personal runes and symbols (p. 29) seems a fitting avatar for this period of work, with its unmistakable pull toward something elemental, and therefore timeless. i
Jane Livingston et al., The art of Richard diebenkorn, exh. cat. (new York, Whitney Museum of american art, 1997) p.115.
ii
Julian Machin, “Richard diebenkorn: a Rare interview,” San Francisco chronicle (17 november 1992).
iii
Sunday Morning, cbS news, 8 January 1989.
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kathan brown, know That You are Lucky (San Francisco: crown Point Press, 2012) esp. pp. 156-69, 242-43.
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Livingston, 1997, esp. pp. 86-89, 113-14.
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Livingston, 1997, p. 113.
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Livingston, 1997, pls. 195-97.
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Sarah bancroft et al. Richard diebenkorn: The ocean Park Series (newport beach, ca: orange county Museum of art, 2011) pls. 141-43.
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Sunday Morning, 1989.
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Livingston, 1997, pl.207. 9
S k U L L , 1992 Watercolor, graphite, and pasted paper on paper, 7 1/2 x 6 inches (19.1 x 15.2 cm) “92� lower right, The Grant Family collection, Rd 2241 11
U n T i T L e d , 1998 Gouache, ink, and pasted paper on paper, 10 x 6 7/8 inches (25.4 x 17.5 cm), “88� lower right, Rd 2232 12
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache, ink, and graphite on paper, 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm), Rd 2506 13
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Watercolor, paper tape, graphite, ink, crayon, and colored pencil on torn-and-taped paper 16 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches (42.5 x 34.9 cm), Rd 2234 14
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache, crayon and graphite on joined paper, 14 3/8 x 16 1/2 inches (36.5 x 41.9 cm), Rd 2505 15
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U n T i T L e d 1988/1992 acrylic, graphite, and pasted paper on joined paper, 19 x 34 inches (48.3 x 86.4 cm) “Rd” right edge; “92” lower right; “R. diebenkorn/1992” verso, Rd 2259 17
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache, crayon, and pasted paper on joined poster board, 32 x 22 inches (81.3 x 55.9 cm), Rd 2507 18
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache, ink, and graphite on paper, 15 x 14 inches (38.1 x 35.6 cm), Rd 2254 19
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Pasted paper and gouache on paper, 22 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (57.2 x 39.4 cm), Rd 2246 20
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-91 Gouache, charcoal, and pasted paper on joined paper, 40 x 27 inches (101.6 x 68.6 cm), Rd 2256 21
U n T i T L e d , 1989 Gouache and graphite on paper, 10 x 7 1/8 inches (25.4 x 18.1 cm), “august 89� upper right, Rd 2235 22
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache and crayon on paper, 11 x 9 inches (27.9 x 22.9 cm), Rd 2261 23
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache, ink, graphite, and pasted paper on paper, 10 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches (26.7 x 22.2 cm), Rd 2502 24
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache and crayon on paper, 29 3/4 x 22 1/2 inches (75.6 x 57.2 cm), Rd 2264 25
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache on paper, 29 3/4 x 17 inches (75.6 x 43.2 cm), Rd 2253 26
U n T i T L e d , c. 1990 charcoal and gouache on paper, 24 x 14 3/4 inches (61 x 37.5 cm), Rd 2252 27
U n T i T L e d , c. 1988-92 Gouache and crayon on paper, 25 x 18 inches (63.5 x 45.7 cm), Rd 2247 28
U n T i T L e d , 1982/92 Gouache and crayon on paper, 29 3/4 x 24 inches (75.6 x 61 cm), Rd 2509 29
RichaRd diebenkoRn biogRaphy 1922-1993
born in Portland, oregon (1922). Family moved to San Francisco bay area (1924). attended Stanford University (1940 – 43; ba, 1949) Studied at University of california, berkeley (1943) while serving in the U. S. Marine corps (1943 – 45). attended california School of Fine arts (1946). Lived in Sausalito, ca and taught at california School of Fine arts (1947 – 50). Studied at University of new Mexico, (MFa, 1951). began berkeley series of abstract expressionist paintings (1953). began still lifes, then landscapes as a prelude to figurative paintings (1955). Taught at california college of arts and crafts, oakland (1955 – 59). Taught at San Francisco art institute (1959 – 63). Lived in Santa Monica and taught at University of california, Los angeles (1966 – 73). began ocean Park series (1967). Moved to healdsburg, ca (1988). died in berkeley, ca (1993). Museum exhibitions include: The drawings of Richard diebenkorn, organized by the Museum of Modern art, new York (1988); major traveling retrospective, The Whitney Museum of american art (1988); elected to The Royal academy, London (1992). blue Surround, evolution of Print, Mh de Young Memorial Museum, The Fine arts Museum of San Francisco (1994); The art of Richard diebenkorn, The Whitney Museum of american art, new York, nY (1997-1998). clubs and Spades, The Fine arts Museums of San Francisco, california Palace Legion of honors, San Francisco, ca (2002). The ocean Park Series, Modern art Museum of Forth Worth, Fort Worth, TX; traveling to orange county Museum of art, newport beach, ca; corcoran Gallery of art, Washington, d.c. (2011-2012).
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We are pleased to present this exhibition of late works on paper by Richard diebenkorn. The works in this show were made during the final years of diebenkorn’s life from 1988-1993. during this time the artist was living in healdsburg, ca and, while individual works from this period have been previously exhibited, this is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to the healdsburg years. This exhibition would not be possible without the generosity and support of Phyllis diebenkorn and her family. We offer them our deepest gratitude. We would also like to thank the staff of the Richard diebenkorn catalogue Raisonne for all of their help in producing this catalog. Finally, we thank Steven a. nash for his insightful and enlightening essay.
John Van doren dorsey Waxter
Left: Polaroid of Richard diebenkorn taken in his healdsburg studio c. 1992 for Michael kimmelman, “a Life outside,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1992. above: Richard and Phyllis diebenkorn in their healdsburg living room, 1992 31
PUbLic coLLecTionS
akron art Museum, akron, oh albright-knox art Gallery, buffalo, nY allen Memorial art Museum, oberlin college, oberlin, oh anderson collection at Stanford University, Stanford, ca arkansas arts center, Little Rock, aR art institute of chicago, chicago, iL baltimore Museum of art, baltimore, Md berkeley art Museum, University of california, berkeley, ca brooklyn Museum, brooklyn, nY chrysler Museum of art, norfolk, Va carnegie Museum of art, Pittsburgh, Pa cincinnati art Museum, cincinnati, oh cleveland Museum of art, cleveland, oh colorado Springs Fine arts center, colorado Springs, co corcoran Gallery of art, Washington, d.c. cranbrook art Museum, bloomfield hills, Mi crocker art Museum, Sacramento, ca dallas Museum of art, dallas, TX davis Museum and cultural center, Wellesley college, Wellesley, Ma denver art Museum, denver, co des Moines art center, des Moines, ia Fine arts collection, University of california, davis, ca Fine arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, ca Fogg Museum, harvard art Museums, cambridge, Ma Frances Lehman Loeb art center, Vassar college, Poughkeepsie, nY Georgia Museum of art, University of Georgia, athens, Ga Grand Rapids art Museum, Grand Rapids, Mi Grunwald center for the Graphic arts, hammer Museum, University of california, Los angeles, ca henry art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Wa high Museum of art, atlanta, Ga hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian institution, Washington, d.c. honolulu Museum of art, honolulu, hi indiana University art Museum, bloomington, in iris and b. Gerald cantor center for Visual arts at Stanford University, Stanford, ca kalamazoo institute of arts, kalamazoo, Mi kemper Museum of contemporary art and design, kansas city, Mo Los angeles county Museum of art, Los angeles, ca Mildred Lane kemper art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo Metropolitan Museum of art, new York, nY Milwaukee art Museum, Milwaukee, Wi Modern art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX Montana historical Society, helena, MT Montclair art Museum, Montclair, nJ Morgan Library and Museum, new York, nY Museum of contemporary art, Los angeles, ca Museum of Fine arts, boston, Ma Museum of Fine arts, houston, TX Museum of Modern art, new York, nY
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national academy Museum and School of Fine arts, new York, nY national Gallery of art, Washington, d.c. nelson-atkins Museum of art, kansas city, Mo neuberger Museum of art, Purchase college, State University of new York, Purchase, nY new Mexico Museum of art, Santa Fe, nM new orleans Museum of art, new orleans, La nora eccles harrison Museum of art, Utah State University, Logan, UT north carolina Museum of art, Raleigh, nc norton Museum of art, West Palm beach, FL norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, ca oakland Museum of california, oakland, ca oklahoma city Museum of art, oklahoma city, ok orange county Museum of art, newport beach, ca orlando Museum of art, orlando, FL Palmer Museum of art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa Pennsylvania academy of the Fine arts, Philadelphia, Pa Philadelphia Museum of art, Philadelphia, Pa Phillips collection, Washington, d.c. Phoenix art Museum, Phoenix, aZ Picker art Gallery, colgate University, hamilton, nY Princeton University art Museum, Princeton, nJ Raymond Jonson Gallery collection, University art Museum, albuquerque, nM Robert hull Fleming Museum of art, University of Vermont, burlington, VT Saint Louis art Museum, Saint Louis, Mo San antonio Museum of art, San antonio, TX San Francisco Museum of Modern art, San Francisco, ca San Jose Museum of art, San Jose, ca Santa barbara Museum of art, Santa barbara, ca Santa cruz island Foundation, carpinteria, ca Sheldon Museum of art, University of nebraska, Lincoln, ne Smith college Museum of art, northampton, Ma Smithsonian american art Museum, Washington, d.c. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, new York, nY University of arizona Museum of art, Tucson, aZ University art Museum, State University of new York at albany, nY University of iowa Museum of art, iowa city, ia University of Michigan Museum of art, ann arbor, Mi Virginia Museum of Fine arts, Richmond, Va Walker art center, Minneapolis, Mi Whitney Museum of american art, new York, nY Wichita art Museum, Wichita, kS William benton Museum of art, University of connecticut, Storrs, cT Williams college Museum of art, Williamstown, Ma Yale University art Gallery, new haven, cT canada art Gallery of ontario, Toronto SoUTh koRea Leeum, Samsung Museum of art, Seoul, South korea
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Published on the occasion of the exhibition Richard diebenkorn: The healdsburg Years, 1988-1993 november 5, 2014 – January 16, 2015 design by doyle Partners edited by dorsey Waxter, Sophia Jackson and nick naber essay © 2014 by Steven a. nash, Phd artwork photography by Richard Grant and carl Schmitz Photographs of Richard and Phyllis diebenkorn and the healdsburg, california studio by Richard Grant (p. 7), Joni Weyl Felsen and Sidney Felsen (p. 31), dana Fineman (pp. 6, 30), kathie Longinotti (pp. 4, 7, 8) and c. Smith (pp. 2-3). We would like to thank the following people for their unwavering support in the production of this show: Richard Grant, Gretchen Grant, andrea Liguori, carl Schmitz, Rakia Faber, daisy Murray holman and christina boyd. iSbn: 978-0-9908058-0-9 Printed and bound in boston by Grossman Marketing Group © Van doRen WaXTeR, new York, nY. all rights reserved. no Part of the contents of this catalogue may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. cover: Rd 2261, p. 23 Frontispiece: Rd 2234, p. 14
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