1957, Richard Diebenkorn, Interior with View of the Ocean (detail) -- Phillips Collection (Washington)
From the museum label:
The Phillipses first became interested in Diebenkorn at the urging of Duncan's nephew, Gifford Phillips, who in the early 1950s became one of the artist's foremost patrons. The Phillipses purchased this painting in 1958, gave Diebenkorn his first East Coast solo museum show in 1961, and presented a retrospective of the artist's works on paper in 1989.
Interior represents a moment when Diebenkorn moved away from his earlier abstract Berkeley series toward more figurative subjects. On the back of the canvas, a signature with a crossed-out inscription indicates Diebenkorn painted this picture over a Berkeley painting with the date "Jan 55." Along the canvas eages, visible during a recent conservation treatment, colorful splatters of rose, peach, green, and purple offer a glimpse of the palette.
Diebenkorn painted Interior directly over the abstract picture, developing the composition in stages. He initially painted the view of the ocean across the upper half of the canvas before adding the architecture of the interior walls. Colors of the sky and landscape can still be seen through the thin application of the dark blue paint. In an infrared image, the interior walls become transparent and the extended landscape and horizon line across the center are revealed, along with other altered features, such as the figure seen standing at right.
1957, Richard Diebenkorn, Interior with View of the Ocean (detail) -- Phillips Collection (Washington)
From the museum label:
The Phillipses first became interested in Diebenkorn at the urging of Duncan's nephew, Gifford Phillips, who in the early 1950s became one of the artist's foremost patrons. The Phillipses purchased this painting in 1958, gave Diebenkorn his first East Coast solo museum show in 1961, and presented a retrospective of the artist's works on paper in 1989.
Interior represents a moment when Diebenkorn moved away from his earlier abstract Berkeley series toward more figurative subjects. On the back of the canvas, a signature with a crossed-out inscription indicates Diebenkorn painted this picture over a Berkeley painting with the date "Jan 55." Along the canvas eages, visible during a recent conservation treatment, colorful splatters of rose, peach, green, and purple offer a glimpse of the palette.
Diebenkorn painted Interior directly over the abstract picture, developing the composition in stages. He initially painted the view of the ocean across the upper half of the canvas before adding the architecture of the interior walls. Colors of the sky and landscape can still be seen through the thin application of the dark blue paint. In an infrared image, the interior walls become transparent and the extended landscape and horizon line across the center are revealed, along with other altered features, such as the figure seen standing at right.