This is the first book to focus exclusively on what Grace Hartigan terms her "art history paintings": paintings specifically inspired by works culled from her far-ranging interests in art of the past. The essay and interview with the artist consider Hartigan’s response to compositional ideas and deliberate reinterpretations of famous "masterworks" of the west. Illustrations include a grouping of recent paintings in which Hartigan has borrowed figures, poses, and gestures appropriated from a variety of sources.

Grace Hartigan is a former director of the Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore.