Margit Beck (1911-1997) Abstract Expressionist Painter

Margit Beck was born in Tokay, Hungary, and received her art education at The Institute of Fine Arts, Oradea Mare, Romania.  Coming to the United States in the 30's she studied at The Art Students League in New York.  During the 1940's, Miss Beck’s style as a cubist took form making use of angular patterns using the most striking contrasts, by applying paint with the palette knife while using brilliant bursts of color amid prisms of light.  Her early work utilized highly stylized figures in abstract form. 

By the mid 1950's she became a MacDowell fellow, and the time spent in the mountains of New Hampshire, gave her a new perspective by utilizing dazzling incandescent colors, vibrating movements applied to ethereal scenes of forest, mountain and universe.  Each painting uses bold conceptions that are adroitly developed through the patterning of light and color into congruity of design, Margit Beck was no stranger to the American art scene.  She has had 22one-man shows, including Contemporary Arts Gallery (New York City), The Babcock Galleries (New York City) and ACA Galleries (New York City) all of which have met with wide spread critical acclaim by newspapers and art publications.  Miss Beck's paintings have been shown in nearly every major National as well as International exhibitions.  She is represented in major permanent collections throughout the country.  Miss Beck has been the recipient of some of the most prestigious award and honors awarded in the art field including 3 Childe Hassam Fund Purchase awards (1968,69,71).  Miss Beck is a member of numerous art associations including, the National Academy of Design where she received academician in 1975. 

In reviewing her work The Herald Tribune wrote:
"Painting becomes a God-like act as Margit Beck recreates the breadth and wonder of the west's open spaces in imaginative canvases that combine realist and abstract idioms with stunning effect.  Aerial landscapes, mountain fastnesses, lowering storms are done with power, vision and verve that are close to breathtaking.  Miss Beck’s paintings, watercolors and drawings show a rarity of singular beauty and subtlety.  Her imagery is based on complexed aerial views of cities and farmlands, and mountains, with their built-in geometric configurations and dizzying rush of space.  Her work contains the contradictory, ambiguous elements of things seen from a great distance, but she distills from this telescopic approach a brilliant montage of shapes, stunningly distorted by space, yet enveloped by an overall logic, serenity and colorist quietude.  It is Miss Beck's gift to make us experience her vertiginous heights without once disturbing the equilibrium required to see her paintings as first-rate works of art.”

By the 1970's Miss Beck's broad sweep of color indicating fields, hills, and valley, are replaced by trees, clusters of farm buildings and the geometric grid of roads, fences and plowed fields all put down giving great attention to the illusion of deep space. These canvases huge in size (70"x80") give the viewer a sense that the landscape is a patchwork quilt of patterns, with her mountains undulating with the concentric rhythm of their contours, and her villages and farms sparkling with a radiance of tiny jewels.

In 1976 Ms. Beck was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.  That along with the death of her husband of 40 years ultimately devastated the creative spirit that was essential in the creation of her mystical masterpieces.  By 1984 it became impossible for her to hold a paintbrush and ultimately her body was ravaged by the deteriorating affects of her worsening condition.  In 1997 she passed away.

Studied:
Institute of Fine Arts, Oradea Mare, Romania
Art Students League, New York, N.Y.  1934-1936

Member:
Artist Equity Association (formerly on Board of Directors 1965-1970);
Audubon Artists (formerly Vice President and member of Executive Board);
College Art Association; Women in the Arts
National Academy of Design (elected Academician 1975)
North Shore Community Art Center, (1963-1976)

Teaching:
Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., 1976-1968
New York University, New York, N.Y. 1967-1983-Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art
Empire State College, State University of N.Y. 1974-1982
National Academy of Design, 1976
Art in America School of Painting , Great Neck , N.Y. 1956-1967
North Shore Community Arts Center, Great Neck, N.Y. 1963-65

Awards and Honors:
Edwin Palmer Memorial Award, National Academy of Design, 1975
The Paul Puzinas Memorial Award, National Academy of Design, 1978
Andrew Carnegie Award, oil, National Academy 1973
Medal of Honor, Audubon Artists 1968, 1972
Childe Hassam Fund Purchase Award, American Acad. of Arts & Letters, 1968-69,71
M.R. Stern Award, oil, Audubon Artists, 1967
Henry Ward Ranger Fund Purchase Award, National Academy of Design 1965 1973
Winsor & Newton Award, oil, Amer. Soc. Of Contemporary Artists, 1964
Johnson Award, oil, Silvermine Guild of Artists, New Canaan, Conn 1963
Watercolor Award, Amer. Society of Contemporary Artists, 1962
Permanent Pigment Award, National Assoc. of Women Artists, 1963
Z. Gerstenzang Prize, oil, National Assoc. of Women Artists, 1961
Brooklyn Society of Artists Award, watercolor, 1962
Harry Strongin Award, Brooklyn Society of Contemporary Artists, 1961
Nellie Friedland Award, oil, Brooklyn Society of Artists, 1958
MacDowell Foundation Residence Fellowship 1956-57, 1959-60, 1975
Winsor & Newton Prize, oil, National Association of Women Artists, 1957
Gold Medal, oil, Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y. 1954
Purchase Prize, watercolor, Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y. 1955
Medal of Honor, National Association of Women Artists, 1956
First Prize,  Portraiture, Suffolk Museum , Stoney Brook, N.Y. 1951

Collections:
Whitney Museum of Art, New York, N.Y.
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art,  Wichita, Ks.
J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Neb.
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Md.
Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, Fla.
Norfolk Museum of Arts & Science, Norfolk, Va.
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Conn.
West Texas Museum Lubbock, Tx.
Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, N.C.
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass.
Herbert H. Lehman College, N.Y.
Queens College Art Collection, N.Y.
Mansfield State College, Mansfield, Pa.
Hunter College, Bronx, N.Y.
Glichtenstein Museum, Safaad, Isreal
Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.

Solo  Exhibitions:                                            
ACA Gallery, New York, N.Y.  1981, 1983                
Babcock Galleries, New York, N.Y. 1962, 64, 66, 68, 71, 72, 75
Contemporary Arts Gallery, 1955, 56, 58, 59, 60
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, S.C. 1959
Nassau Community College, Garden City, N.Y. 1973
Queens College, Flushing, N.Y. 1973
Great Neck Library, Great Neck, 1978
Port Washington, Port Washington, N.Y. 1978
Mansfield State College, Mansfield, Pa. 1965
San Joaquin Pioneer Museum Stockton, Ca. 1965

Selected Exhibitions:
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 29th. Biennial (toured by A.F.A. for 3 years)
Art in Embassy Program (American Embassy Copenhagen) 1956-57
Nat. Inst. of Arts & Letters, Annual Exhibition of Candidates for Grants 1960,66, 67, 68,                
American Academy ofArts & Letters, N.Y. Childe Hassam Fund Exhib. 1960, 62, 66, 68, 70, 71
Whitney Museum of Art, N.Y. Annuals 1956, 59, 60
Butler Inst. Of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Brooklyn Museum International Watercolor Biennial, 1959, 61, 63, 67
University of Nebraska, 1957, 58
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Phil. Pa. annuals, 1957, 66, 68
National Museum of Fine Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1961, 63
Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1963
Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1960
American Federation of Arts Travelling Exhibition, from Whitney Museum, 1961
Davenport Museum Art Gallery, Iowa, 1963
Institute of Brasil-Estados Unidos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1960
Galeria I.B.E.U., Santiago, Chile, 1960
Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, S.C. 1961
Telfair Academy of Arts,  Savannah, Ga.  1961
Georgia Museum of Arts, Athens, Ga, 1961
University of Florida, Gainsville, Fla, 1961
Art Institute of Chicago, Ill. Annuals 1960, 61
J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky.  1960-61
Forum Gallery, N.Y. Outstanding Am. Landscape Painters by Invitation, 1963
Federation of Modern Painters, 35annual 1976-77
Artists 77, United Nation Annual, 1977
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 1970
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts,  Ala. 1964
Birmingham Museum of Art, Biringham, Ala.
University of Notre Dame, 1963
Silvermine Guild of Artists, New Canaan, Conn. 1960-64
Art Association of Newport, Newport, R.I. 1968
Provincetown Art Festival, Provincetown, Ma.  Chrysler Museum 1958
North Shore Art Center 1956-1967, 71
American Society of Contemporary Artists, Riverside Museum Annual 1958-1964
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Fla. 1957, 59, 60, 61
Morse Gallery of Art, Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla. 1956, 1961
National Association of Women Artists, N.Y. N.Y. annual 1954-1966
Audubon Artist Annual Exhibition 1956-1974
National Academy of Design, New York, 1953, 54, 55, 57, 73
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C. 1956, 57, 59, 64
Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, Annual Exhibition, 1955, 56, 57

                                   
Sources:
Information courtesy of the artist's son, John Schwartz