Untitled

With its vibrant colors, this drawing is typical of Diebenkorn's work at a moment when it was dominated by a sense of landscape and a personal response to Abstract Expressionism. Inspired by De Kooning, Gorky, and Rothko, he developed his own style, characterized by dense fields of color in linear planes and lyrical abstraction that gave the sense of illusionistic space. Life magazine appropriately called it "abstract landscape." Eventually abandoning this style, Diebenkorn turned to figurative painting feeling that it offered an opportunity to contemplate the painting process in greater depth.