Recognized as a major figure in postwar American painting, Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was an artist strongly identified with California but whose work is beloved throughout the United States and the rest of the world. This catalogue is the most comprehensive volume on the artist now available. Jane Livingston's extensively researched biographical essay covers Diebenkorn's entire career and concentrates on the artist's inner life and purposes as revealed in his paintings. Ruth Fine deals primarily with the figurative aspect of Diebenkorn's work (1955-67), and John Elderfield concentrates on the Ocean Park period (1967-93). All three authors provide valuable insights based on their personal relationships with the artist and his widow, Phyllis. On both page and canvas, the reader can sense Diebenkorn's complexity and highly self-conscious working methods, as well as his formidable integrity. "The Art of Richard Diebenkorn" will give readers with an interest in all phases of modernism new thoughts about the relationship between abstraction and representation. Stunningly illustrated, with 192 full-color reproductions, this book is an exhilarating testament to a distinctive American artist.

A four-volume definitive resource on the career and unique works of the postwar American artist Richard Diebenkorn The celebrated American artist Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was a singular figure in postwar American art. Early in his career, he created abstract paintings that combined landscape influence, aerial perspective, and a deeply personal calligraphic language. Then, in late 1955, he began working in a representational mode (landscapes, figure studies, and still lifes) and was associated with the Bay Area figurative movement. Diebenkorn later abandoned figurative references in the 1960s and embarked on monumental abstract, geometrical compositions, including his celebrated Ocean Park works. This four-volume catalogue raisonne is the definitive resource on Diebenkorn's unique works, including his paintings, works on paper, and three-dimensional objects. The first volume gives an overview of the artist's career, featuring essays by noted scholars John Elderfield, Ruth E. Fine, Jane Livingston, Steven Nash, and Gerald Nordland, as well as an illustrated chronology, list of exhibitions, bibliography, and selection of studio notes. The second volume spans his student and early abstract works; the third volume features his representational works during the Berkeley period; and the fourth volume covers his later periods, as well as his sketchbooks and other little-known private drawings. Many of the more than five thousand works illustrated in this catalogue are being published for the first time, and with new color photography that showcases his work like never before. Published in association with the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco