Rosemarie Beck (July 8, 1923 – July 15, 2003) was an American

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

in the

post-World War II The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States (U.S.) and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementati ...

era. She was married to the writer and editor Robert Phelps.

Education and early life

A 1944 graduate of

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

with a bachelor's degree in art history, Beck later studied at Columbia University, the Art Students League in New York, The Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and in workshops with well-known artists

Kurt Seligmann Kurt Leopold Seligmann (20 July 1900, Basel – 2 January 1962, Sugar Loaf) was a Swiss-American Surrealist painter, engraver, and occultist. He was known for his fantastic imagery of medieval troubadors and knights in macabre rituals and inspi ...

and

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

. Shortly after graduating from Oberlin in 1944, she moved to Woodstock, N.Y., where she struck up friendships with neighbors

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980) was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplis ...

and Bradley Walker Tomlin, artists who had an influence on her early work.

Career

In the early part of her career, she was regarded as a member of the second generation of the New York School of abstract expressionists and her work was often exhibited at their annual shows at the Stable and Peridot galleries. Early in her career, Beck considered herself to be an abstract expressionist painter, but by the late 1950s, she had switched to the figurative focus that she would retain for the rest of her career. Beck became “one of the few painters of our time to treat grand themes in ambitious multi-figure compositions while satisfying a need both for abstract structure and for an execution that embodies energy without being gratuitous,” according to critic Martica Sawin. Beck taught at

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

of New York,

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

, the

Vermont Studio Center The Vermont Studio Center (VSC) is a non-profit arts organization located in the town of Johnson, Vermont. It conducts the largest fine arts and writing residency program in the United States, with a significant population of international artis ...

, and the

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at 8 West 8th Street, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York State is an art school formed in 1963 by a group of students and their teacher, Mercedes Matter, all o ...

, where she was on the faculty until shortly before she died.

Public collections

*''Two Women'', ca. 1960-1965,

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, Washington, D.C. *The Art Center. Vassar College. Poughkeepsie, NY *Fine Art Museum, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC *Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA *Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, DC *The Corporation of Yaddo, New York, NY * The Hirshhom Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC *Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH *The McCoy Institute *Museum of Art, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT *National Academy of Design, New York, NY *The Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY *Trenton Museum *The University of Nebraska *Queens College Art Center, Flushing, NY *Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA *Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC *Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, NY

Solo exhibitions

*2015 "Lyric Truth" (3 venue retrospective), Portland State University, Portland, OR *2013 "Le Maquillage & Magdalen," Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, NY *2013 "Rosemarie Beck: Paintings from the 60s," The National Arts Club, New York, NY *2012 "Rosemarie Beck: Embroidered Mythologies," Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, NY *2007 Rosemarie Beck: Abstraction into Figuration, Paintings 1952-1965, Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, NY *2003 Belk Gallery, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC; Rider University Art Gallery, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ *2002 University Galleries, Wright State University, Dayton, OH *1999 Retrospective Exhibition, Queens College, NY *1992 Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH *1989 Ingber Gallery, New York, NY *1985 New York Museum Annex, Brooklyn, NY *1980 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY *1979 Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT *1972 Peridot-Washburn Gallery, NY *1971 Zachary Waller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Duke University Museum, Chapel Hill, NC *1962 State University at New Paltz, NY *1960 Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (12 year retrospective) *1961 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY *1957 Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY *1948 Woodstock Artists Association, Maverick Concert Hall, Woodstock, NY *1944 Allen Art Museum, Oberlin, OH

References

External links

Official site
*http://www.maureenmullarkey.com/essays/beck.html *http://womansartjournal.org/26-1.php *http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/restein_catalogs/34/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Rosemarie 1923 births 2003 deaths Abstract expressionist artists American abstract artists 20th-century American women artists Oberlin College alumni Columbia University alumni New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni 21st-century American women New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture faculty