Richard Diebenkorn at Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series
September 24, 2011-January 15, 2012 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
February 26-May 27, 2012 at the Orange County Museum of Art
June 30-September 23, 2012 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California, announced final details for the much anticipated exhibition Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series. Opening at the Modern on September 24, 2011, this exhibition is the most comprehensive show to date of Diebenkorn’s most celebrated body of work, the Ocean Park series. Co-organized by OCMA and the Modern, the exhibition is curated by OCMA curator Sarah C. Bancroft. Presenting more than 75 Ocean Park paintings, prints, and drawings-the largest selection ever on view together-this unprecedented project offers visitors the opportunity to explore in-depth the complexity of Diebenkorn’s artistic and aesthetic achievements within this series. Works in the exhibition come from prominent museums, institutions, and private collections across the country, many of which have rarely been seen by the public. The exhibition tour continues at the Orange County Museum of Art and concludes at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

While Diebenkorn’s work has been the subject of many exhibitions in the United States and abroad, previous projects have provided a limited introduction to the artist’s Ocean Park series or have focused on other aspects of his career. By presenting paintings, prints, and drawings-capturing his practice of working in diverse media-this exhibition presents a long-overdue opportunity to explore the breadth and depth of the series as never before possible, showing conclusively the variety, subtlety, and complexity of the artist’s practice. In addition to the well-known paintings, this exhibition includes the lesser-known small oils painted on cigar-box lids, which the artist gave to his family and friends; some of the most significant and ambitious prints the artist produced; and a diversity of drawings and collages (including a small selection of his Clubs and Spades works); all of which lend new insight into the artist’s working process when shown in conjunction with the paintings. The exhibition spans two decades, beginning with some of the earliest Ocean Park abstractions Diebenkorn produced shortly after his arrival in Santa Monica, California (such as Ocean Park #16, 1968), and revealing the artist’s stylistic evolution and explorations over those 20 years.