Diebenkorn, Richard

(born April 22, 1922, Portland, Ore., U.S.—died March 30, 1993, Berkeley, Calif.) U.S. painter. After studying at Stanford University, he taught at California Institute of the Arts (1947–50), and there developed an abstract style under the influence of such painters as Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko. By the mid 1950s he had achieved some commercial success but turned to an expressionistic figurative style. He produced accomplished figure drawings, still lifes, landscapes, and interiors in the Modernist tradition. Throughout his career he alternated between figuration and abstraction. His best-known works are the Ocean Park series, begun in the 1960s, comprising over 140 large abstract paintings that retain allusions to landscape.

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