Sculptor, muralist, designer, and teacher, Constantino Nivola embraced a diverse range of talents with differing mediums and scales. His defining contribution to mid-century art started at a young age. His father was a mason, and Nivola worked as his assistant along with his brothers. Growing up in Italy, Nivola had the opportunity to study under the painter Mario Delitala and attend schools where other great artists presided as teachers. These teachers also implanted differing ideals in Nivola. In 1939, to avoid arrest, Nivola fled the fascism in Italy and set course for the United States. Flourishing as a teacher and artist in the US, Nivola taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia University, and University of California at Berkeley. His large-scale, abstract architectural sculptures were found on a number of American buildings between the 1950s and 1970s. His other prints and paintings are found in numerous museums and galleries across the world including the Nivola Museum in Orani, Sardinia, which is dedicated to his life and artworks.

This portfolio of prints demonstrates the depth and breadth of art making in 1976 America. Commissioned for the 1976 celebration of the American Bicentennial, it includes works by James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Allan D’Arcangelo, William Bailey, Edward Ruscha, Christo, James Brooks, Velox Ward, Raymond Saunders, Robert Andrew Parker, and Ben Schonzeit.