Billy Al Bengston is a master of the watercolour. He has a perfect command of all the many facets of the subtle yet demanding medium which constitutes a significant proportion of his oeuvre. Many of his best works are painted with watercolours - delicate and subtle, with their radiant colours permeated by the lightness of the Californian lifestyle. Themes and motifs that also determine the painterly work gain a special expressiveness here: bizarre landscapes and opulent blossoms, fantastic celestial bodies and colourful abstractions.

This opulent volume presents roughly 400 of the nearly 3,000 works of Bengston's oeuvre for the first time and demonstrates the extremely precise skill of an artist who has enriched watercolour, in combination with collage, gouache, and mixed media, with numerous new aspects.