© Nachlass Herbert Beck

Fascinated by the Expressionists, Herbert Beck developed and perfected his own unmistakable watercolor technique over decades. He worked wet-on-wet on thick laid paper so that the watercolor paint could be applied in thick layers. This creates the intense, glowing, and luminous colors so typical of the artist.

Herbert Beck was born in 1920, the son of a renowned jeweler in Leipzig, and initially trained to take over his father's business as a goldsmith. In the post-war period, however, the family had to flee to the West and he began to paint exclusively. Since 1948 he has lived and worked in Tegernsee, and every year since 1974 he spends several months in Laigueglia, Italy. After a serious illness in 1984, he was forced to abandon oil painting and now only paints with watercolors. He creates unusually large-format works for watercolor painting. In 2010 he died in Tegernsee after a brief illness.

Herbert Beck was essentially an autodidact. In 1952 he met Emil Nolde by chance at the Commeter Gallery in Hamburg. This encounter had a decisive influence on the young artist's painting. He increasingly concentrated on color and developed his own distinct artistic expression: wide landscapes, expressive towering clouds, and flowing floral forms. Another theme is the representation of man and the ambivalence of human existence.

Herbert Beck never adapted to the prevailing art movements of the post-war period; he remained figuratively expressive, even though he explored the limits of abstraction. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in London, Paris, New York, and Beijing.