Richard Diebenkorn
Ocean Park #36, 1970
Oil on canvas
93 x 81 1/4 inches
Gift of David H. Steinmetz
1977.011

Richard Diebenkorn is an essential figure in postwar American art, and his Ocean Park series is considered his greatest achievement. Ocean Park #36 is a quintessential painting from this glorious group of Diebenkorn canvases. The artist worked on these paintings when he lived in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, California. Diebenkorn's love of the California landscape is apparent in this masterful painting, which is infused by his distinctive touch, moody brushwork, and impeccable sense of scale. Redolent of the sun-soaked atmosphere of the California seacoast, its complex diagonal lines suggest the confluence of the built environment of Los Angeles with the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean. This large-scale picture unfolds slowly, its diaphanous colors bathed in reflected light.