Nude

Richard Diebenkorn's first serious effort at printmaking came in the early 1960s, while he was still working in a representational manner. In 1961 and early 1962 Diebenkorn, who lived in Berkeley, California, taught briefly at the University of California, Los Angeles. He did not have a place to paint in Los Angeles, and at the invitation of Wesley Chamberlin, a graduate assistant in etching at the school, and later a printer-fellow at the Tamarind Institute, Diebenkorn began to make simple drypoints and etchings, drawn from life.

At around the same time, Diebenkorn was invited to work on lithographs at Tamarind, where he produced three editions in June of 1961. He returned for an extended period in April and May, 1962, and produced several more lithographs that exemplify his keen awareness and appreciation of such European painter-printmaker masters as Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

After his return to Berkeley in 1962, Diebenkorn met and began a fortuitous relationship with the great master printer and publisher Kathan Brown, who was just starting her Crown Point Press, enabling him to continue his printmaking activities. These early activities formed the foundation of his life-long pursuit of printmaking as a serious adjunct to his work in painting and drawing.