"An American Focus celebrates the exceptional and extensive Anderson Graphic Arts Collection of prints, multiples, and monotypes by major contemporary American artists. From 1968 to 1996 Bay Area collectors Harry and Mary Margaret Anderson built one of the finest post-World War II private graphic arts collections in the United States.

Their collection surveys the American printmaking renaissance with outstanding examples of print processes - woodcut, intaglio, lithography, screenprint, and monotype - from major fine art presses, including Gemini in Los Angeles, Universal Limited Art Editions in New York, and Crown Point Press in San Francisco.

The Andersons held "the best" as a criterion in acquiring works of art, as seen in this selection of 192 works from their collection, now housed with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.".

"This volume presents a rare opportunity to view works on paper by many of the best-known contemporary artists, including Richard Diebenkorn, Kiki Smith, Jasper Johns, Elizabeth Murray, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Josef Albers, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ellsworth Kelly. The works are presented in chronological order and organized into four sections, each corresponding to the decade in which they were produced, from the 1960s to the 1990s.".

"Karin Breuer introduces each section and describes important events and trends in American print history; she has also contributed an essay on the story behind the renowned Anderson Collection and an illustrated chronology of American printmaking from 1945 to the present.

The chronology tracks the printmaking renaissance, noting major events, landmark works such as Rauschenberg's Booster of 1967 that redefined the possibilities of scale in contemporary prints, and seminal exhibitions such as the 1968 Degas monotype exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum that stimulated a revival of interest in monotype among contemporary artists.

With the addition of a fully illustrated checklist of the 192 works, this volume is essential reading for everyone interested in contemporary American art and printmaking."--BOOK JACKET.