Interior with a Book, 1959
Richard Diebenkorn

“Richard Diebenkorn worked in two styles-gestural realism, as in Interior with a Book, and complete abstraction, as in the Ocean Park Series.

In Interior with a Book, Diebenkorn integrates flat areas of color with more realistic passages suggesting three-dimensional space. The right two-thirds of the canvas present a landscape, sky and interior space in terms of an abstract pattern of horizontal bands of color. Perspective, or the illusion of receding space, is achieved through the intersection of these horizontals with the diagonal lines of the window frame. The careful placement of a chair, book and trees enhances this illusion of depth.

The empty chair and open book suggest the absence or eventual presence of a solitary figure, creating a mood of quiet anticipation.”