
Beatriz Vidal was born in Argentina and attended the Faculty of Philosophy
and Humanities of Cordoba University. In 1966 she traveled to New York,
where she met the Hungarian born artist Ilonka Karasz, who had belonged to the Wiener Werkstatte movement and was a direct disciple of G.I.Gurdjief. That encounter
changed her life. She studied painting and design with Karasz for several
years, during which time her career as an illustrator began with designs for
Unicef cards and record covers. Her illustrations also appeared in such
magazines as Gourmet, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Woman's Day
and The New Yorker.
In 1981 she illustrated the prize winning book "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti
Plain" by Verna Aardema. It became a PBS Reading Rainbow selection and
remains a popular feature on that program to this day.
In 1988 she illustrated part of the PBS series "Joseph Campbell and the Power
Of Myth" with Bill Moyers. These illustrations resulted in another book:
"Buffalo Dance" (Little Brown & Co., 1993).
Several books followed: "Rainbow Crow" (Knopf, 1989), also a Reading
Rainbow selection on PBS, "The Legend of El Dorado" (Knopf, 1991),
"A Promise to the Sun" (Little Brown & Co.,1992), "The Magic Bean Tree",
(Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1997), "A Library for Juana" (Knopf, 2002) which
won the prestigious Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book
Award, "Federico and the Magi's Gift" (Knopf, 2004) which she wrote and
illustrated and "A Gift of Gracias", by Julia Alvarez (Knopf, 2005).
She illustrated part of "Children of God", a storybook Bible retold by Desmond Tutu (published by Lux Verbi, 2010).
Other books include "Pine & the Winter Sparrow", by Alexis York Lumbard, 2015, "Tillie Long Tale", by Bette Killion, 2016, both by Wisdom Tales, and "Martí's Song for Freedom" by Emma Otheguy, Children's Book Press, 2017.
From 1985 to 1987 she was invited to teach design and illustration on children's
literature for Arab countries in Summer Seminars held in Cyprus and
organized by the Beirut University College.
She has also taught at Hunter College, the New School for Social Research,
and the 92nd Street Y.
In 2007 she was invited by the IBBY (International Board of Books for the
Young) to give a workshop on illustration in Ulaambaatar, Mongolia, to enrich
the quality of their children's literature. She travelled to China as well.
She has had many exhibitions of her paintings in the USA and abroad in both
group and solo shows, among them The International Exhibition of Illustration for Children in Sarmede, Italy, The Society of Illustrators in New York, Teacher's College at
Columbia University, The Museo Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernandez Blanco in
Buenos Aires and The Consulate General of Argentina in New York. Her paintings and illustrations have been at Bloomsbury Auctions, New York.
At present she divides her time between Buenos Aires and New York City.
|