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Artist or Maker: Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993)

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Provenance: M. Knoedler & Co., New York
Private collection, Houston
M. Knoedler & Co., New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

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Exhibited: New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Richard Diebenkorn: Recent Work , November 1987, p. 3, no. 2 (illustrated).
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell on Paper , June-July 1993, no. 19.

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Notes: PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION

On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale which may include guaranteeing a minimum price or making an advance to the consignor that is secured solely by consigned property. This is such a lot. This indicates both in cases where Christie's holds the financial interest on its own, and in cases where Christie's has financed all or a part of such interest through a third party. Such third parties generally benefit financially if a guaranteed lot is sold successfully and may incur a loss if the sale is not successful.
"Diebenkorn says of the Ocean Park series that 'The abstract paintings permit an all-over light which wasn't possible for me in the representational works, which seem somehow dingy by comparison.' At the same time, the larger color areas which have been developing for some years permit an invigorated and intensified color which is expansive and conditioned by his all-over light. Conflicts still abound in the artist's working methods and goals. Diebenkorn likes to work thinly with his paints but he also wants density of layered pigments. Scraping and over-painting result in compromises. He claims that he would like the work to unfold in order and be all laid out as in a diagram, but at the same time, he is severely tempted to push the painting into chaos in order to see what will happen. He searches for a unity that is fresh, and surprising to himself, but that relies upon the nature of perception as well as the experience of art" (G. Nordland, Richard Diebenkorn, The Ocean Park Series: Recent Work , New York, 1971, p. 11).

24421652: Piet Mondrian, New York City II , circa 1942. Collection Kunsthsammlung Nordhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. c 2007 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust c/o HCR International.