Photographed by Scott Wolff. Image scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Coffee

Artist Richard Diebenkorn (American, 1922 - 1993)

Date1956

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 67 x 58 3/4 in. (170.2 x 149.2 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2003

Terms

Man
coffee
Red
Green
Black
Blue
Yellow
White
Figurative
San Francisco Bay area

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. In the foreground is a man at a café/diner. He sits alone at a table, stirring a cup of coffee. The table is covered with a white tablecloth, which has blue and purple tints in it. There are no details on his face. His eyes are dark green shadows. The shadows under his nose and lip are also green. At his right elbow there is a green rectangle, possibly the top of a chair. There are chairs on his left (right side of the canvas). The upper portion of the background is red with two bright yellow spots in the upper right corner; this is possibly car headlights shining through the window. The colors divide the painting: red fills the top third on the canvas, black fills the space behind the man, and the white from the tablecloth creates the foreground.

Label TextRichard Diebenkorn American, 1922–1993 Coffee, 1956 Oil on canvas A forceful quality in art, truly representative of our modern situation, will rise above the labels of abstraction and realism. –Richard Diebenkorn A man sits alone in a café stirring his coffee as if lost in thought. But the figure is only one of the painting’s subjects. The other is the carefully balanced and richly colored shapes on the canvas surface and the striking effects of the light falling on the figure from the electric bulbs above. Together, Richard Diebenkorn’s subjects push beyond the limits of both representation and abstraction. They depict a moment when everyday details give rise to extraordinary insights. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2003