I’m a big fan of Richard Diebenkorn, however to be fair, this show is a great disappointment.<\/p>\n
In what amounts to a show of his artworks while earning his masters degree, the show falls flat. I think the problem could be that this work is clearly not mature – in fact it is fast, thin, and a little bit generic in its feel. RD was at the time of his New Mexico experience, painting in the style of the abstract expressionists – I should really clarify that – because of the diversity of images created by that group, Diebenkorn was mining a style that felt like deKooning with a touch of Robert Motherwell thrown in. As far as student work – that is all well and good, the problem arises in that the questions that the ABEX painters were addressing is completely absent in these works. They come across as a series of images of wanting to be taken seriously without providing enough firepower to support that approach.<\/p>\n
I rarely do a bad review on this site – I think enough people are negative enough as it is – why add to it. However in this case, I had pumped this show up twice before seeing it and was so let down I felt that I owed at least some semblance of my truth to you the reader after actually seeing this show.<\/p>\n
There was one thing I was really hoping to see after I realized the weakness’s of the show. That is the sense of place that Diebenkorn has transfixed in his Ocean Park<\/i> series, I was really hoping for that same kind of place in these paintings. Unfortunately that is not here. Lets hope that a show of his more mature work will be making the rounds soon – this is not the kind of show that does a reputation any good, especially the stellar reputation of an american master like Richard Diebenkorn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m a big fan of Richard Diebenkorn, however to be fair, this show is a great disappointment. In what amounts to a show of his artworks while earning his masters degree, the show falls flat. I think the problem could be that this work is clearly not mature – in fact it is fast, thin, and a little bit generic in its feel. RD was at the time of his New Mexico experience, painting in the style of the abstract expressionists – I should really clarify that – because of the diversity of images created by that group, Diebenkorn was…<\/p>\n