Some say it’s about time Sonoma entered the modern world. And we say, that time is now – especially this month at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. From now through Aug. 23, the museum plays host to works by internationally acclaimed Bay Area “modern” artist Richard Diebenkorn. The exhibit – titled “The Intimate Diebenkorn: Works on Paper 1949-1992” – will feature collages, watercolors and gouaches on paper. According to museum officials, the more than 50 works in the exhibit present a richly “intimate” glimpse into the artist’s evolution spanning more than 40 years.
Diebenkorn, who died in 1993 at age 71, is best known for his large-scale, vivid abstractions. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area “figurative movement” of the 1950s and 1960s. His later works, the “Ocean Park” series, eventually brought him worldwide acclaim.
The works in “The Intimate Diebenkorn” were selected by Sonoma artist Chester Arnold, who presented a smaller version of the exhibit at the College of Marin in Kentfield in 2013.
Arnold describes Diebenkorn as “an artist of quiet generosity and enormous creative energy.”
“As drawings are usually where an artist tests ideas, they are often the most revealing, immediate, and exploratory, and the least improved,” says Arnold. “But while Diebenkorn’s drawings and watercolors embody those characteristics, these sometimes tiny works on paper are the works of a modern master who made a new world for us to enter.”
Arnold says to pay particular attention to Diebenkorn’s “alchemy of color and proportion.”
Museum executive director Kate Eilertsen adds: “It is a rare peek into the artistic process for one America’s most beloved artists.”
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