Brooklyn Museum: Collections: Contemporary Art

Richard Diebenkorn (American, 1922–1993). Ocean Park No. 27, 1970. Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 in. (254.0 x 203.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Roebling Society and Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Blatt and Mr. and Mrs. William K. Jacobs, Jr., 72.4

In 1967, Richard Diebenkorn began a series of paintings named Ocean Park after the section of Santa Monica, California, where he had his studio. In contrast to his preceding, figurative group of works, this new series of abstract images allowed the artist to employ, as he put it, "an allover light which wasn't possible in the representational works, which seem somewhat dingy by comparison." In Ocean Park No.27, Diebenkorn reduces the scene to planes and fragments of color. Depth and spatial illusion are suggested by the color's changing density and the composition's system of receding lines. Using a low-key palette devoid of harsh tones, the artist accomplishes his stated goal of communicating "a feeling of strength in reserve, tension beneath calm."

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