Manuel Rodulfo Tardo

He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro",^[1] Havana, Cuba, together with Juan Esnard Heydrich y José Francisco Cobos, and at The Sculpture Center, New York City. One of his mentors was the Cuban sculptor Juan José Sicre. He was a painter as well as a sculptor.^[2]

He founded the Provincial School of Fine Arts (La Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Matanzas) with Rafael Soriano, José Felipe Núñez, Juan Esnard Heydrich and Roberto Juan Diago Querol^[3] and was elected five times as its director.^[4]

Rodulfo Tardo was awarded many major commissioned works through his life, both in Cuba and the United States. Below some are presented with dates, when available.

1. Monument to Cuban Navy Sailors, lost during anti-submarine operations, torpedoed and sunk. (Cuban Department of Defense) Habana National Cemetery. 1943.

2. Monument of Leonor Perez, Mother of Poet Patriot Jose Marti Baliar, Havana Cuba.^{[citation needed]}

3. Monument to Jose Marti, Matanzas Cuba

4. Monument to Poet Plácido Domingo, Esplanade Versalles Cuba.

5. Poet Bonifacio Byrne Parque Central, Matanzas Cuba.

6. Sacred Family Dioceses of Matanzas, Cuba.

7. Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, Cuban Patroness, Basilica National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C., USA. 1975–76.^[5]

Among his most relevant personal exhibitions can be included "Exposición Manuel Rodulfo Tardo", Lyceum, Havana, Cuba, 1941, and "Rodulfo Tardo. Recent Sculptures/Gisela Hernández. Selected Drawings", Horizon Galleries, New York CityA, 1982.

He was also part of many collective exhibitions, including the first Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte. Madrid, 1951. Instituto de Cultura Hispánica, Madrid, Spain. Some of his pieces were selected to conform the Bienal Hispano Americana de Arte. Instituto Cultural Cubano Español, Havana, Cuba, 1951. And in representation of his country his works were exhibited in the Hispanic American Artists of the United States: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., 1978.