Pentimento

 

Pentimento:  it's an Italian word, meaning "repentance".  In the art world, it refers to marks and areas that have been superseded and worked over, but which still can be discovered in the finished work.  One might say that the artist "repented" of his original marks, and made changes to them. Some pentimento is not visible to naked eye, and is only found via X-rays or infrared scans.  A famous example is in Jan van Eyck's painting shown at the top of this post, in which he reworked one of the male figure's hands.

"Seated Nude, 1966:

Charcoal on Paper, 33 x 23.5 inches

Richard Diebenkorn, 1966

But the pentimenti that most interest me are those which are intentionally left visible in the final artwork.  I find it fascinating to see these marks, because they show the thought process and the myriad decisions made by the artist during the creation of the work.  Sometimes these pentimenti are drawing marks left visible, and other times they are actual changes to the composition.  

"J.A.D.I., 1966"

Charcoal on Paper, 25 1/8 x 19 inches

Richard Diebenkorn, 1966

Richard Diebenkorn was a master at revealing, rather than hiding, his process.  As Thomas Larson wrote in Art Revue Magazine, Diebenkorn's "expressions of form and color collect and compound the residue of the many impulses it takes him to complete (or abandon) a painting.  No other American artist has kept the covered over decisions which make a painting as Diebenkorn has, and made them his unmistakable style."

Ocean Park No. 79

Oil on Canvas, 93 x 81 inches

Richard Diebenkorn, 1975

Diebenkorn famously said that he intentionally did things wrong at first, in order to set them right later.  For him, the process of making art was a process of correcting, and the correcting was joyful.  No wonder his work embodies the magic of pentimento!  His two charcoals shown above are intriguing for their searching lines. The mark-making shows Diebenkorn's journey of discovery as he explored the motif.  His large abstract Ocean Park paintings (such as the one immediately above) are also layered with shapes and colors that are applied, then abandoned and painted over.  The surface texture of the canvas speaks of the accumulation of time, and of the many decisions that have been made and revisited, over and over again.  I for one like to see this evidence of the painter's struggle--it makes me appreciate the hard fought battle of painting.  Enjoy!