Folsom Street Variations II (Gray)

Richard Diebenkorn was a leading abstract painter and printmaker who developed a distinctive style of geometric abstraction inspired by observations of the California landscape. Folsom Street Variations II is part of his long-running Ocean Park series of paintings and works on paper (1966-88) that took its name from the Santa Monica neighborhood where he lived at the time. A blend of expressive and purely formal elements, the print embodies Diebenkorn’s focus on abstract arrangements of color, tone, line, and shape that suggest the architectonic features of the landscape as seen from an elevated or aerial perspective. Here, Diebenkorn uses hand-inscribed drypoint lines to define the geometry of the composition, while relying on the more painterly techniques of soap-ground aquatint and flat bite to accentuate the surface qualities of the work. Though it retains suggestions of an aerial landscape, the print exemplifies Diebenkorn’s interest in exploring the dynamic interface between line and shape, gestural mark-making, and color and tonal harmonies.