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Martin
Beck
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Martin Beck's Gallery
"At Chamot, a more intimate Martin Beck"
The Jersey Journal 4/20/2001
"Painter provokes with naked precision". The
Sunday Star-Ledger 3/30/01
"Arts fellows show off their creativity". The
Sunday Star-Ledger 1/7/2001
"Fit for Public Consumption". The Jersey Journal
Saturday, October 14, 2000
"Concept Gallery's '30 Curators' exhibit displays
artists chosen by local art professionals". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (
February 10, 2000)
"Methods and Materials:
Using Studies to Build a Painting." American Artist (July 1999):
"Not Much in Common, Except Commitment to a
Vision". The New York Times (Sunday, May 24, 1998)
"Three Jersey City Museum exhibitions mix media,
messages". The Sunday Star-Ledger (March 29, 1998)
WHITE. New York: Jersey City Museum 3/11/1998
"Martin Beck". ArtPapers (November/December,
1995)
"Memory Pictures". The Princeton Packet (October
6, 1995)
"CAC show mystifies, fascinates". The Cincinnati
Post (June 21, 1995)
"Martin Beck".
In Pittsburgh" (April 1992)
 Beck's
art belongs to a genre of figuration that demonstrates a sensibility akin
to European Master painters, despite his acknowledgment that our postindustrial
society and its social fabric are changing. Artists that combine elements
of the fantastic in their works such as Hieronymous Bosch, Peter Bruegel
the elder and Francisco Goya, as well as those who depicted aspects of
prosaic reality, such as Gustave Courbet, Eduoard Manet and Edgar Degas
have significantly shaped his visual language. Like them, Beck struggles
to depict the human condition of his age but within an altered framework.
As a member of an "information society" he recognizes the significance
that language plays in establishing perception and shaping information.
Elements that resist the old framework - such as instant global media
coverage, computers, digital photography - are critically important in
shaping culture. Through a unique synthesis of allegory, psychological
perceptiveness and idiosyncratic invention, Beck constructs manifold enigmatic
puzzles depicting critiques of bourgeois and working class cultures.
As a painter, he is a master of social and sociopolitical satire and lampoonery.
Working with powerful whiplash candor and employing the drama of light
dark contrasts, beck brings forth intelligent pictures that are filled
with wry commentary about our Postmodern era. His use of the recognizable
image is comforting and inviting to the viewer despite the bizarre content
of the dramas portrayed.
EDUCATION
B.F.A., Cum Laude. State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.
1986.
M.F.A., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. 1992.
AWARDS
2000 New Jersey State Council on the Arts 1994 -95 New Jersey State Council
on the Arts
COLLECTIONS
Anne Marxer,
Berkeley, CA
Carnegie Mellon
University Art Collection, Pittsburgh, PA
David W. Chen, Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Marcus Eubanks,
Pittsburgh, PA
Elizabeth Ragagli Santa Monica, CA
Jeffrey Frazier and Rebecca White,
Pittsburgh, PA
Jim and Janet Cooke,
Philadelphia, PA
Lawrence Sunden,
Harrington Park, NJ
Lewis Collection, Pittsburgh, PA
Matthieu Faullimmel,
Paris France
Museo de Art Moderno de la Republica Dominica Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic
Peter and Lori Massing,
Huntington, WV
Private Collection,
Mountainview, NJ
Private Collection,
New York, NY
Private Collection,
Pittsburgh, PA
Private Collection
Bloomfield, NJ
Richard Breen and Monica Owusu Breen,
Los Angeles, CA
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