Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942–1955

Organized by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation in conjunction with the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento

Curated by Scott A. Shields, PhD, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Crocker Art Museum

Late in life, Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993) contemplated his career, remarking, “I think what one is about now has intimately to do with what one did yesterday, ten years ago, thirty years ago. Just as you can continue that progression, what somebody else did, forty years earlier, a hundred years earlier, I think that’s what one as an artist probably is.”

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942–1955, present a more rounded view of Diebenkorn’s evolution to maturity, focusing solely on the paintings and drawings that precede his shift to figuration. The exhibition seeks to take Diebenkorn at his word: that understanding his overall production depends on a broader knowledge of his aesthetic trajectory. Included in the exhibition are 100 paintings and drawings from the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, many of which had not before been publicly exhibited. Together these 78 drawings and 22 paintings offer a full picture of the young artist’s achievements.