Untitled

In 1960, Emily Mason and Wolf Kahn traveled with their young daughter Cecily to the University of California at Berkeley, where Kahn taught as a visiting professor and exhibited a solo show. In addition to his own courses, Kahn also participated in group critiques with other painters, including Richard Diebenkorn, with whom they formed a friendship.

In 1980, Diebenkorn began a series focusing on the spade form, as in the present work. Diebenkorn explained of the motif, "Clubs and spades have been in my work ever since I have been painting. They came on peripherally. I have tossed them in occasionally, but I have never confronted them directly. I used them this time because I wanted some sort of image that would hold its presence. An image that I could manipulate, and...I decided to develop those shapes. I knew they were going to be the main focus. You see, I knew those shapes had emotional charge for me, but I didn't expect that charge to last as long as it did." (as quoted in S. Bancroft, A View of Ocean Park, Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series, Newport Beach, 2011)