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Announcing Representation of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
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Artists Rights Society is pleased to announce the representation of the works of Richard Diebenkorn through the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.
As their licensing agent, ARS and their global sister societies will manage global copyright permissions for the works of Richard Diebenkorn, supporting the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation’s mission to expand knowledge and foster appreciation of Richard Diebenkorn’s art, and to illuminate crucial artistic developments of the 20th century.
The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation joins an array of artists, estates, and foundations represented by Artists Rights Society, such as Jenny Holzer, Dale Chihuly, Mickalene Thomas, Emory Douglas, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Les Heritiers Matisse.
About Richard Diebenkorn
All paintings start out of a mood, out of a relationship with things or people, out of a complete visual impression. —Richard Diebenkorn
Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993) produced, over a forty-five year span, a body of work whose beauty and mysteriously empathic nature has long attracted many devotees worldwide. He lived during the period of America’s great surge onto the world stage of visual art, working alongside the likes of Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, and Joan Mitchell, but forging a decisively independent style. While still in his twenties he moved briefly to New York from his native San Francisco region, realizing that its artistic climate was the most stimulating locus in the United States, but soon returned to California where, aside from two important early years in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a year teaching in Urbana, Illinois, he remained.
From a glorious early flowering in the language of Abstract Expressionism, where he responded directly to the light and landscapes of New Mexico and the urban Midwest, Diebenkorn turned to a prolonged period of making figurative and landscape art, going very much against the grain of his generation. A leader in Bay Area figurative painting, Diebenkorn produced work that was received with enormous affection and excitement by a wide audience. Then, quite abruptly in 1966, he turned to a new form of abstraction, again decisively different from his peers. Moving from Berkeley to Los Angeles, he proceeded to make the monumental abstract works known as the “Ocean Park” series, incorporating the lessons of two of his key influences, Henri Matisse and Piet Mondrian.
—Jane Livingston
The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation’s mission is to expand knowledge and foster appreciation of Richard Diebenkorn’s art, and to illuminate crucial artistic developments of the 20th century. The Foundation increases public access to his work and understanding of his legacy and time through support of exhibitions, loan of artworks, research, publications, archival services and digital initiatives. Its collection of prints, drawings, paintings and sculptural objects is an indispensable resource in achieving its charitable purpose.
Education and communication are at the core of Foundation programs. In 2016, the Foundation, in association with Yale University Press, published Richard Diebenkorn: The Catalogue Raisonné, the definitive resource of the artist’s all known unique works. A volume that catalogues the artist’s print production is forthcoming in 2025. The Foundation maintains diebenkorn.org, which provides unprecedented access to the artist’s monumental output, as well as his archives of photographs, correspondence and other personal documents. The Foundation collaborates with museums on exhibitions and offers research, logistical support and new color photography of nearly every work made by the artist. Its staff also works directly with scholars, historians and students to assist them with appropriate projects.
About Artists Rights Society
Artists Rights Society (ARS) is the premiere licensing agency for visual artists in the United States, representing over 122,000 artists. ARS functions as a nexus between the vast and active network of artists, museums, scholars, galleries, journalists, and commercial collaborators. Our unique role in the cultural community, harnessed by our 30+ years of experience in intellectual property matters, enables us to serve as a platform for all artists to empower themselves with knowledge of their legal rights. In support of our mission, we guide artists and collaborators through the often obscure realm of copyright and intellectual property matters with licensing expertise, legal support, advocacy, educational outreach, relationship building, and product development.
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