'Todo Empezo'.
Albert Beltrán was born in Mexico City in 1923. He studied drawing at the Free School of Art and Publicity and printmaking at the National School of Plastic Arts, where his teachers were printmaker Carlos Alvarado Lang and muralist Alfredo Zalce. He has won several awards for his prints, and began his career as a cartoonist for newspapers and magazines in the Mexican capital, such as Excélsior (1942), Revista Mañana (1944), Novedades (1960) and Magisterio. He was the editor and illustrator of two satirical newspapers, in which he captured the most characteristic gestures of politicians, actors and other public figures: 'Ahí Va El Golpe' (1958) and 'El Coyote Emplumado' (1960). He additionally edited the union's paper Solidaridad.
Later on, Beltrán joined Taller de Gráfica Popular and began a career in book illustration. He illustrated 'Todo Empezò El Domingo' by Elena Poniatowska in 1963, and he subsequently published several educational monographs, such as '50 Artistas Opinan Sobre El Arte'. Beltrán has additionally made several murals for museums, and he was founding member of the Academy of Arts.
Illustration by Alberto Beltrán.