“California Painters: New Work” (Chronicle Books: $40, cloth; $29.95, paper).

Selections Lita Albuquerque, Charles Garabedian, Oliver Jackson and Masami Teraoka, clockwise from top left, are among the 41 artists represented in “California Painters: New Work” (Chronicle Books: $40, cloth; $29.95, paper). Selections were made by Henry T. Hopkins, director of Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation of Los Angeles, who gives a speedy history of the state’s art scene, concluding that, at the beginning of the 1980s, “California appeared to have taken the first vital step toward achieving parity with New York as an international art center.” Each entry includes a portrait by photographer Jim McHugh, samples of the artist’s work and a personal statement, some of these biographical, some meditative, some businesslike. Garabedian writes tersely: “The older I get, the harder it is to paint. This makes writing about it strange, difficult and maybe impossible.”