A great and stately unfolding occurs in the “Ocean Park” paintings of Richard Diebenkorn, among which can be counted some of the most beautiful works of art created in America, or anywhere else, since the Second World War. Eighty of them are the subject of an exhibition, the first devoted exclusively to the “Ocean Park” series, at the Orange County Museum of Art in California.
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Comments
It sounds like New England should try its hardest to get the show here.
Your superb article on my demi-god of a painter was so well written. I plan to see the show while it's in DC, and I already own the catalog to the show. I cannot get enough of Diebenkorn's work. After having seen his how at MOMA in 1988, I was a convert. The power of his work is humbling. One can view a single piece of his work for many, many minutes and be transported to a higher plane of art appreciation. There was a reference in the article that Diebenkorn "was a spiritual cousin" of Fred Williams, the Australian painter. Maybe it's because it's Smee's attachment to his native birth country, but certainly Williams doesn't hold up to Diebenkorn's quality and spirituality. To associate the two is a major overstatement. The one major force in Diebenkorn's influence was Matisse. Look at some of Matisse's work from the 1920's and one can clearly see the dramatic effect it had on Diebenkorn. Rearrange a few elements in a Matisse and one can see a Diebenkorn in the making. Matisse was the major influence.