Sarah Cascone reviews Richard Diebenkorn: Early Color Abstractions 1949–1955 at Van Doren Waxter, New York, on view through March 5, 2016.

Cascone writes: "The paintings [on view] mark an important stage in the artist's development, as he left Sausalito, California, in 1949, and began studying for his graduate degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The exhibition also covers his time Urbana, Illinois, where he moved in 1952, and his first years in Berkeley, California, where he settled later that year. Throughout his career, Diebenkorn was always inspired by the landscape…"