"I have long taken on Paul Klee’s words as if they were my own: 'First of all, the art of living, then as my ideal profession, poetry… and as my real profession, the plastic arts, and…to make a living, illustrations.' Since my favorite subjects were legends and folktales, I chose to illustrate children’s books, which I find enormously rewarding and which continues to be a source of great joy..."
—Beatriz Vidal
Beatriz Vidal is an internationally known artist and prize-winning illustrator of children’s books. Born in Argentina, she studied painting and design in New York in the 1960s with Hungarian-born artist Ilonka Karasz, a former member of the Wiener Werkstatte. During that time, her work included designs for Unicef cards and record covers. Her illustrations also appeared in Gourmet, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Woman's Day, and The New Yorker.
In 1981, Vidal illustrated the prize-winning book Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. It became a PBS Reading Rainbow selection and remained a popular feature for more than two decades. In 1988, she illustrated part of the PBS series "Joseph Campbell and the Power Of Myth" with Bill Moyers. That work resulted in another book commission: 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).
Vidal illustrated part of Children of God, a storybook Bible retold by Desmond Tutu (published by Lux Verbi, 2010). She also illustrated Blancaflor by Alma Flor Ada, McGraw-Hill, 2011. More recently, she illustrated Pine and the Winter Sparrow, retold by Alexis York Lumbar, for Wisdom Tales Press, which received the Gold Medal in the ‘Illustration–Graphics’ category of the 2015 Midwest Book Awards; and Little Lek Longtail Learns to Sleep, also for Wisdom Tales Press. Little Lek Longtail, written by Bette Killion, was an award-winning Finalist in the 2016 USA “Best Book” Awards.
From 1985 to 1987, she was invited to teach design and illustration for children's literature from Arab countries at Summer Seminars held in Cyprus and organized by Beirut University College. She has also taught at Hunter College, the New School for Social Research, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City.
In 2007, the IBBY (International Board of Books for the Young) invited her to give an illustration workshop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, organized to enrich the quality of Mongolian children's literature.
Vidal has taught design and illustration for Beirut University College, Hunter College, and the New School for Social Research in New York. She has also traveled and worked internationally in Mongolia and China. Her work has been exhibited in the USA and abroad in both group and solo shows, including 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.
