Ocean Park #32

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Ocean Park #32

Artist Richard Diebenkorn (American, 1922-1993)

Date1970

DimensionsOverall: 93 × 81 in. (236.2 × 205.7 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of David K. and Georgia E. Welles

Object number

2025.9

On View

External Site Address (External address), On Loan

Label TextRichard Diebenkorn American, 1922–1993 Ocean Park No. 32 Oil on canvas, 1970 Lent by Georgia Welles I'm very old-fashioned. Though I'm interested in most of the new art, painting remains for me a very physical thing, an involvement with a tangible feeling of sensation. Between 1967 and 1988 Richard Diebenkorn produced an extraordinary series of abstract paintings known as Ocean Park. Named for the sunny Santa Monica neighborhood where he worked, the series has been seen by many as abstractions of the beachfront and architecture seen through his studio window. For Diebenkorn the link was less explicit: “I'm just making paintings, and this environment has produced such and such a look and feel.” An evocative exploration of space, line, and color, Ocean Park No. 32 is reminiscent of a collage; the painted geometric planes seem cut out and assembled. Diebenkorn drew charcoal lines onto the canvas—some freehand, some carefully ruled. These lines further delineate shapes or sometimes indicate changes made in the process of creation. The painting also makes its process visible in other ways: look for drips of paint and finger marks indicating Diebenkorn’s method of applying thin layers of oil paint that he then scrubbed, spattered, and manipulated on the canvas.