Although artist Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) earned acclaim for his poetic renderings of the prosaic particulars of American life, he openly admitted that "it's hard for me to think of artists who weren't influential on me, because I'm such a blatant thief." The official exhibition catalogue of the exhibition at the Legion of Honor, Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art features the artist's virtuosic appropriations and reinterpretations of old and new European and American artworks, spanning from Andrea Mantegna to Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse to Richard Diebenkorn, offering crucial insights into his creative process. 

Thiebaud's exploration of art, artists, and art history—along with the practices of copying, appropriation, and reinterpretation—allowed him not only to see through the eyes of other artists but also to commune with them through their work, expanding his own vision. This career-long engagement with the concept of appropriation illustrates his perception of art history as an encyclopedic "bureau of standards"—a rich repository and resource that offers working artists community with their predecessors and communion with their artworks. Hardcover, 360 pages.