Beschreibung:

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)Cigar Box Lid #13 (Ocean Park Series) 1979 signed with the artist's initials and dated 79; signed, titled and dated 1979 on the reverse oil on wood 8 7/8 by 7 1/8 in. 22.5 by 18.1 cm.FootnotesProvenance Private Collection, Los Angeles (acquired directly from the artist in 1979) Exhibited Nebraska, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska; New York, Brooklyn Museum, Richard Diebenkorn An Intimate View, 1985-1986, cat titled Richard Diebenkorn Small Paintings from Ocean Park, no. 13, n.p. , illustrated in color New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Washington D.C., Phillips Collection; San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Richard Diebenkorn 1997-1999, no. 178, p. 223, illustrated Literature Cynthia Nadelman, "California on Canvas," Elle, September 1986, p. 159 Sarah Bancroft, Susan Landauer and Peter Levitt, Richard Diebenkorn The Ocean Park Series, Newport Beach, CA, Orange County Museum of Art: 2011, exh. cat., pl. 72, p. 149, illustrated in color Jane Livingston and Andrea Liguori, eds., Richard Diebenkorn the catalogue raisonné, Volume 4, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2016, no. 4380, p. 278, illustrated in color From Richard Diebenkorn's most coveted and celebrated Ocean Park Series, comes the present lot, Cigar Box Lid #13. A superior and rare example that astutely translates the scenery of the artist's environment into the lyrical and poetic serenity that embody Diebenkorn's uniquely West Coast footprint on abstract expressionism. Cigar Box Lid #13 encapsulates Diebenkorn's surroundings at the time of its execution when the artist was living in Santa Monica, California after moving south from Berkeley in 1966. The artist's studio studio at that time (formerly the studio of his contemporary, Sam Francis was located in the Ocean Park neighborhood, for which this most recognizable and iconic series is named. It was at this studio, and in this context, where Diebenkorn developed a visual language that cemented his artistic prowess and immutable legacy in the Art World and beyond. Extremely rare to market, this painting has been in the same collection since it was acquired directly from the artist in the year it was created. The present lot presents an incredibly rare and special opportunity to own a masterpiece that "[investigates], on a private and meditative scale, a vast domain of feeling." (George W. Neubert, Richard Diebenkorn Small Paintings from Ocean Park, 1987) Representing an important subset within the Ocean Park Series, Cigar Box Lid #13 is the last of thirteen works painted on cigar box lids between 1976 and 1979. These works were primarily gifts to family and friends that have proven to be some of the most historically significant paintings in the artist's oeuvre. Through the intimate size of the present lot Diebenkorn shows his incredibly thoughtful ability to address a smaller surface area with the same nuanced gestural dynamism and stunning coloration as a work of larger scale. The present lot is executed with a steadfast elegance to create an incredibly rich and dynamic composition that sings in brushstrokes of seafoam green and dusky blue, punctuated with flares of red and yellow pigment and strikes a beautiful balance between soft and hard textures that evoke a sense of infinity within the limited parameters of a cigar box lid. In addition, the use of the cigar box lid as the painting's support is a rare example of Diebenkorn's use of found materials to enrich and explore the possibilities of his unparalleled style. The view from Diebenkorn's studio faced away from the ocean; the window opened to the linear intersections of streets and busy thoroughfares. The hard-edge lines in Cigar Box Lid #13 and all of the Ocean Park paintings bear a likeness to the topography of the built environment while simultaneously remaining in tune to the vast sky and its ever-changing light. Diebenkorn's practice