A must-have for anyone interested in these two beloved West Coast artists, best known for their geometric abstractions of the California landscape.

Featuring the pairings of more than 50 paintings, this book shows the connection of these two artists like never before. Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud were close friends; they shared the inspiration of California and experimented with perspective to capture their surroundings.

The book includes important examples from Diebenkorn’s Berkeley series in addition to several works from the artist’s Ocean Park series. Inspired by the environs of the Ocean Park neighborhood in Santa Monica, where he lived at this time, these works from the 1960s are characterized by geometric abstractions of subtle line and suffused with Californian luminosity. Wayne Thiebaud began producing landscapes in the 1960s, experimenting with perspective to capture his Californian surroundings. Included are his works from the early 1970s through 2017, including his dramatic depictions of San Francisco, flattened aerial views of the Sacramento River Delta, and close-ups and cross-section views of mountains and beaches.

John Yau has published more than fifty books of poetry, fiction, and art criticism. He teaches at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Philippe de Montebello is a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York, focusing on special exhibitions and publications. Montebello was the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1977 to 2008.