Margit Beck (1911–1997) was a Hungarian-born abstract expressionist known for her luminous, architectonic paintings that bridged cubist structure and spiritual abstraction. Born in Tokay, Hungary, she began her formal art training at the Institute of Fine Arts in Oradea Mare, Romania. Beck immigrated to the United States in the 1930s, continuing her studies at the Art Students League in New York, where she would go on to develop a distinctive style defined by angular forms, chromatic intensity, and palette knife application.

By the 1940s, Beck’s cubist-influenced compositions gave way to increasingly expressive abstractions. During her mid-century breakthrough, her work gained critical attention for its use of incandescent color and dazzling light effects—often rendering mountainous vistas, forests, and aerial landscapes with poetic vision and structural clarity. Her 1950s fellowship at the MacDowell Colony marked a pivotal shift toward an ethereal, light-filled visual language that reflected both nature’s grandeur and the cosmic sublime.

Beck held over twenty solo exhibitions, including shows at Contemporary Arts Gallery, Babcock Galleries, and ACA Galleries in New York, all of which met with acclaim from critics and curators. Her work was selected for major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, the Corcoran Gallery Biennials, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She was also a regular exhibitor in the National Academy of Design's annuals, where she received the Carnegie Prize (1973), the Palmer Prize (1975), and the Puzinas Prize (1978).

A dedicated educator, Beck taught at North Shore Community Arts Center and later at New York University. She was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1975 and was a fellow of the MacDowell Association. Her work is included in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, J.B. Speed Art Museum, Morse Museum, and the Peabody Museum, among many others.

Beck’s paintings—often monumental in scale—combine a geometric sensibility with radiant surface energy. Whether depicting the aerial expanse of farmlands or the rhythmic folds of mountains, her canvases pulse with a quiet intensity, balancing abstraction with a deeply felt sense of place. Critics praised her ability to merge visionary abstraction with architectural harmony, creating works of “breathtaking verve” and “telescopic beauty.”

After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in the 1970s, Beck was ultimately forced to stop painting, but her legacy remains as one of the great American modernists whose contributions were both critically lauded and institutionally recognized.

Studied

• Institute of Fine Arts, Oradea Mare, Romania

• Art Students League, New York, NY, 1934–1936

Memberships

• Artist Equity Association (Board of Directors, 1965–1970)

• Audubon Artists (Vice President and Executive Board Member)

• College Art Association

• Women in the Arts

• National Academy of Design (elected Academician, 1975)

• North Shore Community Art Center (1963–1976)

Awards and Honors

• Edwin Palmer Memorial Award, National Academy of Design, 1975

• 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 Academy of Arts & Letters, 1968–1969, 1971

• M.R. Stern Award (oil), Audubon Artists, 1967

• Henry Ward Ranger Fund Purchase Award, National Academy of Design, 1965, 1973

• Winsor & Newton Award (oil), American Society of Contemporary Artists, 1964

• Johnson Award (oil), Silvermine Guild of Artists, 1963

• Watercolor Award, American Society of Contemporary Artists, 1962

• Permanent Pigment Award, National Association of Women Artists, 1963

• Z. Gerstenzang Prize (oil), National Association 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, 1956–1957, 1959–1960, 1975

• Winsor & Newton Prize (oil), National Association of Women Artists, 1957

• Gold Medal (oil), Hofstra University, 1954

• Purchase Prize (watercolor), Hofstra University, 1955

• Medal of Honor, National Association of Women Artists, 1956

• First Prize, Portraiture, Suffolk Museum, 1951

Collections

• Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

• Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS

• J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY

• Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE

• Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD

• Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, FL

• Norfolk Museum of Arts & Science, VA

• Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT

• West Texas Museum, Lubbock, TX

• Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

• Miami University, Oxford, OH

• Peabody Museum, Cambridge, MA

• Herbert H. Lehman College, NY

• Queens College Art Collection, NY

• Mansfield State College, PA

• Hunter College, Bronx, NY

• Glichtenstein Museum, Safed, Israel

• Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• ACA Gallery, New York, NY, 1981, 1983

• Babcock Galleries, New York, NY, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975

• Contemporary Arts Gallery, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960

• Greenville County Museum of Art, SC, 1959

• Nassau Community College, NY, 1973

• Queens College, NY, 1973

• Great Neck Library, NY, 1978

• Port Washington Library, NY, 1978

• Mansfield State College, PA, 1965

• San Joaquin Pioneer Museum, Stockton, CA, 1965

Selected Group Exhibitions

• Corcoran Gallery of Art Biennial (AFA tour)

• Art in Embassy Program, Copenhagen, 1956–1957

• National Institute of Arts & Letters Annuals, 1960, 1966, 1967, 1968

• American Academy of Arts & Letters, Childe Hassam Fund Exhibitions, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971

• Whitney Museum Annuals, 1956, 1959, 1960

• Brooklyn Museum International Watercolor Biennial, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1967

• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annuals, 1957, 1966, 1968

• Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, 1963

• Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, 1960

• American Federation of Arts Traveling Exhibition, 1961

• Art Institute of Chicago Annuals, 1960, 1961

• Forum Gallery, NYC, 1963

• Artists 77, United Nations Annual, 1977

• Federation of Modern Painters, 1976–1977

• National Academy of Design Annuals, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1973

• Many others, including: Silvermine Guild, Art Association of Newport, Ringling Museum of Art, North Shore Art Center, Morse Gallery of Art, Dayton Art Institute, and more

Periodicals

• Wistful Vista — Margit Beck at Babcock, John Gruen, New York Magazine, Feb. 1, 1971, p. 57