Richard Diebenkorn

In the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, they have a great collection of paintings by the artist Richard Diebenkorn, who I find to be very inspiring for my music.  In the museum they have one of his paintings next to a De Kooning, and it was fascinating to see how they had such different energies yet both tapped into the sublime.  Diebenkorn not only had a long career as an abstract painted but also had a long period where he did representational painting, showing just how multi-talented he was, and how he could channel his talent in many ways – a skill not very well appreciated in our time.  The Metropolitan Museum used to have one of his paintings in its Modern Art collections, but last time I was there it was sadly not hung. I received recently a catalogue of his early works which featured  Gorky-like figues with washes of colour.

Above is a painting of his most iconic style, one that has layers of luminous color in large and small rectangular fields, harmonious and cool to the touch of the eye.