American painter and printmaker, born in Portland, Oregon, graduated from the California Academy of Fine Arts. Richard Diebenkorn is the major artist of the "Gulf School". He first became famous for his Abstract Expressionist works. In mid 1950s, he began to create reproducible works, marked by large luminous color blocks and broad texture brushstrokes. In the late 1960s he started to create extensive series of geometric, lyrical abstract paintings.