Softground Cross, from Four Softgrounds, 1982

Arguably best known for his Ocean Park paintings, Richard Diebenkorn was a painter and printmaker with early roots in abstract expressionism and a later involvement with the Bay Area Figurative Movement throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. His move to figuration saw works such as Girl On a Terrace come to light – he employed a range of soft, subtle colours to create his simple depictions of life at the time. Diebenkorn explored figuration for a decade or so before he returned to his abstraction origins – this is when he began to compile the Ocean Park series, a selection of works that, while abstract, still managed to capture the essence of the landscape and the times he was living among. While it could be stated that his artistic career was divided into three different segments – abstraction, figuration and abstraction once again – Diebenkorn was not afraid to mix the two, and his portraits were usually a striking blend of the two. His work has frequently been compared to that of Willem De Kooning – an artist that Diebenkorn has often cited as an inspiration. (Artist website)