On View
On viewObject number1968/9.86
Sleeping Woman
Artist
Richard Diebenkorn
(American, 1922-1993)
Date1961
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsframe: 5 ft. 11 1/4 in. × 59 1/4 in. × 1 1/2 in. (181 × 150.5 × 3.8 cm)
canvas: 5 ft. 10 1/8 in. × 58 in. (178.1 × 147.3 cm)
canvas: 5 ft. 10 1/8 in. × 58 in. (178.1 × 147.3 cm)
Credit LineDirector's Fund
Exhibition History"Painting and Sculpture of a Decade: 54-64," Tate Gallery, London (Apr. 22 - June 28, 1964), organized by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
"Painting from the San Francisco Bay Area," Paine Art Center and Aboretum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (Sept. 25 - Nov. 20, 1988); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina (July 24 - Sept. 4, 1988); and the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois (Jan. 8 - Feb. 12, 1989).
"Richard Diebenkorn," Whitney Museum of American Art (Sept. 25, 1997 - Jan. 11, 1998); The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (May - August 1998).
"70 Years, 70 Works from the KIA Permanent Collection," KIA (Nov.19, 1994 - Feb.10, 1995).
"Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years 1953-1966," de Young Museum, San Francisco, California (June 22 - Sep. 29, 2013) and Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California (Oct. 26, 2013 - February 16, 2014).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).
"The Expressionist Figure," at the KIA (January 19 - May 5, 2019).
"Unveiling American Genius," KIA Permanent Collection Exhibition, Traditional, Markin, Nay and Groos Galleries (March 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023).
"Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century," KIA (September 7 - February 18, 2025)
Label TextA young woman sleeps, unaware of the viewer’s gaze. Her head resting on her arm forms a strong focal point that is echoed by the horizontal placement of her thigh. A mirror in the upper right corner reflects the scene and opens the space, while at the same time emphasizing the figure’s isolation.
Diebenkorn’s fluid application of paint and active brushstrokes show the expressionist quality that he maintained throughout his career. Richard Diebenkorn started his career as a member of the Abstract Expressionists, a group of artists who explored the creative properties of paint in completely non-realistic artworks. But Diebenkorn began to question his abstract paintings as early as 1955.
Feeling as if something was missing, he returned to figurative painting, creating smaller works depicting single figures against an abstracted backdrop. The Sleeping Woman is an early work in this more representational painting style.
