29 Quotes by Richard Diebenkorn

I have found in my still-life work that I seem to be able to tell what objects are important to me by what tends to stay in the painting as it develops.

My father didn’t think being an artist was a respectable or worthy goal for a man. He hoped I would see my way to more serious work and would find myself turning towards medicine, law, or business.

I keep plastering it until it comes around to what I want, in terms of all I know and think about painting now, as well as in terms of the initial observation.

I want painting to be difficult to do.

And I can just see that sometimes the technique is blasting powder rather than steady struggle.

As a work progresses, its power to elicit and dictate response mounts. There seems to be an optimum moment when this power is at its greatest which just precedes the point where ‘elicit’ is no longer apt usage. ‘Dictates’ is the word for this condition and tyranny is the adversary.

My insights come in periods of working. There are wonderful moments of surprise, but I'm superstitious enough not to want to talk about them.

My father didn't think being an artist was a respectable or worthy goal for a man.

In abstract painting, I worried about the limited range of possibilities that, as time went on, became increasingly important to me. I wanted to express or deal with differences that an all-over paint and canvas 'presence' neutralized.