Tuesday Art ATTACK- Richard Diebenkorn “Ocean Park No. 63”

Richard Diebenkorn Written by Guest Contributor- Christian Franzen Richard Clifford Diebenkorn, Jr. was born on April 22,1922 in Portland, Oregon. When he was two years old his family moved to San Francisco, California. California would play a tremendous part in Diebenkorn's work and would become his home for most of his life. Diebenkorn went to Lowell High School from 1937-1940 from which he then attended Stanford University. His main focus was Studio Art and Art History. In June of 1943 he married his fellow Stanford student Phyllis Gilman. They would later have two children Gretchen and Christopher. Diebenkorn served into the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1945. While stationed in different parts of the United States he visited many important modern art collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Gallitin Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the Phillips Collection in Wachington DC. These visits had a profound effect on him. Returning from service Diebenkorn began studying at the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco. Diebenkorn later became a teacher at the California School of Fine Arts. He had his first solo exhibition at the California Place of The Legion of Honor in 1948. He then attended the University New Mexico, Albuquerque in 1950, where he and his family stayed for two and a half years. While in Albuquerque he held another exhibition which placed him as a distinct figure in the American avant-garde art scene. In 1953 he moved to Berkely with his family where he established himself as tremendous abstract painter. In 1966 he accepted a job at UCLA and he moved to Santa Monica with his family. Here he began his most famous series of paintings known as the Ocean Park Works. He continued to develop and create these works until 1988. This series received much acclaim and Diebenkorn traveled around the United States showing them in many exhibitions. After all the traveling he settled in rural Healdsburg, California where he worked in his studio until 1992. He was forced to move into a Berkley Apartment in order to be closer to medical treatment. He passed away on March 30, 1993 do to various health problems.
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