This portfolio is a tribute to Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996), distinguished teacher, lecturer, and scholar, whose writings have influenced generations of scholars and critics the world over, particularly in the areas of medieval and modern art. Affiliated with Columbia since he enrolled as a freshman in 1920 at age sixteen, he earned three degrees at the University, including the Ph.D. in 1929, with a dissertation on the Romanesque sculpture of Moissac. Schapiro began teaching art history at Columbia in 1928 and rose through the professorial ranks to become full professor in 1952. He was named University Professor, Columbia's highest rank, in 1965 and was designated University Professor Emeritus in 1973.

Known as a champion of the art of his time, Schapiro not only wrote about contemporary art but was a friend of countless artists. As a gesture to their friend and mentor on his seventieth birthday, twelve artists, among them Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Saul Steinberg, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol, in addition to Roy Lichtenstein, created this portfolio of original lithographs, etchings, and silk screens.