This retrospective exhibit represents a half-century of DeGrazia artwork. The collection was first presented at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1973. The retrospective is made up of a series of paintings that show the development of DeGrazia's style over the years. The earliest piece, a profile of two figures, was painted in 1925.

Two of DeGrazia’s earliest influences were master muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, whom DeGrazia worked with in Mexico in the early 1940's. These early works are dark and mostly of people and the events of their daily lives which the artist saw first hand. DeGrazia also admired Paul Gauguin's paintings and traveled to Tahiti to get a better feeling for his work. A couple of paintings reflecting this influence are represented in the collection.

As DeGrazia's artistic evolution continued and he began to enjoy an increasing level of success, his tones began to lighten considerably. This is reflected in colors that became increasingly brighter, themes that became southwestern and a style that became impressionistic. A walk through this collection is a journey through time. This journey begins in the small, poor mining town of Morenci, Arizona, on June 14, 1909, and ends in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona on September 17, 1982.