He was the set designer and art director of more than a hundred Hungarian and foreign feature films, as well as the creator of panel paintings, graphics, "one-man" books, covers, binding designs, typography, prose texts, and illustrations. Jean Delannoy, the renowned director and president of the French Film Academy, considered him one of the best art directors in the world. He worked with directors such as Zoltán Várkonyi, Miklós Jancsó, and Woody Allen. Tivadar Bertalan was an honorary citizen of Újpest and Budapest, and HAA regards his passing as losing one of its own.
Tivarad Bertalan received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Hungarian Film Festival in 2009, was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Újpest in 2010, of Budapest in 2012, and his work was recognized with the Kossuth State Award in 2017.
On 21 March 2014 he held an academic chair lecture entitled Multi-genre in the Age of Technology and Specialization. In the same year, commissioned by HAA, János Domokos shot a portrait film entitled Seeing the Invisible in Tivadar Bertalan's studio in Újpest.