Howard Albert was an artist, musician, and composer. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1930’s, and was reported to have studied printmaking with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York. Hayter was one of the foremost printmakers of the 20th century. His studio, which originated in Paris, was a workshop to such artists as Picasso and Miro.
In the 1930s and 1940s Albert worked as an arranger for a Chicago radio station. Later, he founded the Pauper’s Press where he taught printmaking through the 60’s and 70’s. He was a master in a variety of printmaking methods, including etching, engraving, and woodblock printing. His subject matters included figures, abstraction, typography, and eroticism. In the 80’s, he relocated to Berkeley where he remained until his death in 2004.