North Carolina Museum of Art

Richard Diebenkorn's paintings have been rightly described as "abstract landscapes." A case in point is Berkeley No. 8, which belongs to a series executed while the artist was living across the bay from San Francisco. As with all of the artist’s best work, it is a summary of his quickened perceptions of color and space. Rather than plan, Diebenkorn improvises the picture, discovering its image through trial and error. The composition itself is built of blocks of color, reportedly inspired by aerial views of the American Southwest. Diagonals cleave and fracture the horizontal elements of the design. Most remarkable is the quality of light, a synthesis of the parched colors of New Mexico and the soft, marine radiance of the Pacific coast.