Author Description

This book is from a traveling exhibition in 1976-1977 that commenced at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In addition to photographs of the works in the exhibition, the book includes essays by Robert T. Buck, Jr., Linda L. Cathcart, Gerald Nordland, and Maurice Tuchman. Richard Diebenkorn’s work changed considerably as it evolved over the three decades represented here, demonstrating the artist’s capacity for continuous self-criticism and awareness rarely matched by any of his contemporaries. This willingness to transform his images radically has been misinterpreted by some art critics who see these shifts as signs of weakness. The opposite is the case: Diebenkorn comprehends the nature of art at its most fundamental as a mutating, vibrant, and even evolving force contrasted to packaged and predictable presentations. An independent figure who understandably guarded his personal privacy and artistic integrity carefully, Diebenkorn nevertheless evokes in the art world-at-large reflections and feelings about California more than any other artist. Although he was the best known painter on the West Coast at the time of the exhibition, a position he had held for some time, Diebenkorn is a painter’s painter.