Organized by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator; curated by Dr. Teresa Tío for the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan

This exhibition will be Rafael Tufiño's first major retrospective in the United States, presenting the entire breadth of his work (prints, paintings, drawings and sculpture), as selected from the major retrospective held in Puerto Rico from July 6 through October 7, 2001. Tufiño (b. Brooklyn, 1922) is one of the central figures in the history of twentieth-century Puerto Rican art. A member of Generación del Cincuenta ("The Fifties Generation"), Tufiño has been of one of the major forces in founding and furthering modern Puerto Rican art-both on the Island and in the Caribbean diaspora of New York. Tufiño was one of the founders and leaders of the Island's print tradition, and has been one of the hemisphere's most distinguished poster-makers, an illustrator of books and stories, a draftsman and letterist. The expressive and gestural purity of his draftsmanship became a trademark of Puerto Rican graphics of the 1950s and 1960s. Tufiño consistently depicted the Puerto Rican people in all their daily expressions, working and celebrating. Tufiño made many images of dance, music, and religious festivals, and El Museo will offer public music and dance programs and folk art demonstrations as programming to accompany the exhibition.