Who the hell is Richard Diebenkorn?

Was.

Maybe the greatest American painter of the 20th century.
Oh all right, him and Mark Rothko.
Pollock? Basquiat? Hopper? O'Keefe? Rauschenburg? OK, OK, OK!
The point is, his is not a name that many people are familiar with. He died in 1993 in Berkeley, Caltifornia.

I saw a retrospective of his work once, at the Whitechapel in London, must have been... maybe 1980, thirteen or so years before he died, and the memory of that show has never quite left me. The catalogue of the major 1998 (posthumous) retropective at the Whitney (NY) remains the most looked-at book in my library. And when I have lost the heart to paint, of haven't painted for awhile, I look at it, and invariably I want to paint again.

I've been thinking about him again lately, indeed earlier today on a trip south along the coast to Wollongong, seeing the angular new housing developments, I thought particulary of his semi-abstact 'cityscapes' (more 'suburb-scapes') from the early 60s – the period between the 50s 'organic' abstracts and the 70-80s 'Ocean Park' abstractions.

Anyway, came across this last weekend, quoted in John Elderfield's essay 'Leaving Ocean Park' in the Whitney cataloque, with the permission of Phyllis Diebenkorn, and I repeat it here courtesy of those individuals:

Richard Diebenkorn: Notes to myself on beginning a painting:

1. Attempt what is not certain, certainty may of may not come later. It may be then a valuable delusion.
2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued – except as stimulus for further moves.
3. DO search. But in order to find other that what is searched for.
4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. Don’t discover a subject – of any kind.
6. Somehow don’t be bored – but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.
7. Mistakes can’t be erased but they move you from your present position.
8. Keep thinking about Polyanna.
9. Tolerate chaos.
10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

I think these rules are extraordinary, and although he wrote them about the scary adventure that is painting, I imagine they would have a resonance with most visual artists, writers, composers, choreogoraphers, and even philosophers.

Thanks Bob, your thoughts live on, and your painting still inspires.