Born in Newark, Beatrice Mandelman was active in the New York art scene during the 1930s. During these early years she was primarily a social realist artist and produced a number of color lithographs and screen prints for the Federal Arts Project. She also taught art and worked as a studio assistant in the program. In 1944 Mandelman moved permanently to Taos, New Mexico where she developed an increasingly personal, abstract style in her painting and printmaking.