Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953–1966
By Timothy Anglin Burgard, Steven A. Nash, and Emma Acker
Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993) was one of the most significant and influential American artists working in the decades following World War II. Essential to his legacy are the thirteen extraordinarily productive years that he spent in Berkeley, California. This catalogue is the first to delve deeply into this illustrious period of Diebenkorn’s career. Featuring beautifully reproduced artworks, including some of the artist’s most vibrant and painterly pieces, Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953–1966 is an elegant study of his explorations in abstraction and representation, including figurative, still life, and landscape themes. Three essays provide insightful analyses of these major aspects of his art, while a rare photo gallery of the painter at work, shot by Rose Mandel, offers an intimate view of his studio and process.
With new research culled from the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation archives and never-before-published images, this volume contributes significant new scholarship to the field of American art and shines fresh light on one of its preeminent artists.
Authors
Timothy Anglin Burgard is the Ednah Root Curator in Charge of the American Art Department at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. His publications include Matter and Spirit: Stephen De Staebler (2012), The Surreal World of Enrico Donati (2007), and Frank Lobdell: The Art of Making and Meaning (2003).
Steven A. Nash is the executive director of the Palm Springs Art Museum. He has written widely on modern artists including Pablo Picasso, Naum Gabo, Wayne Thiebaud, and Henry Moore, and he has contributed an essay on Richard Diebenkorn’s work to the artist’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
Emma Acker is an assistant curator in the American Art Department at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. She has written on modern artists including Arthur B. Davies, Peter Lanyon, and Patrick Heron.
