Billy Al Bengston was the consummate Los Angeles artist of the 1960s. As a successful painter with an interest in industrial materials and lacquers, his reconsideration of color relationships and pictorial space positioned him squarely within the tradition of the Finish Fetish artists at the time. He was included in the first Ferus Gallery exhibition in 1957, and he had his first solo show there a year later. Bengston was also a gifted printmaker, and during his fellowship at Tamarind in 1968 he created an astonishing 53 lithographs. This number is all the more impressive when one considers the extremely refined technical skill required to produce the prints. The lithographs required flawless registration and sophisticated color mixing. A pearlescent additive in the ink gave the prints a sheen but required blotting and impeccable inking to achieve the emphasis on surface finish that was fundamental to all of Bengston’s work.