Herbert und Gisela Beck. Two Artists’ Lives

Gisela Beck (1924–2025) and Herbert Beck (1920–2010) had both studied at the Leipzig Academy of Art. Yet after they fled together to Tegernsee in 1948, it was Herbert who pursued a career as an independent artist, while Gisela put her own painting aside to help support the family and further her husband's career. It was not until the age of 70 that she began painting again, encouraged by her husband.

While Gisela Beck explores social roles and individual self-images in her portraits, Herbert Beck turns his attention to the existential vulnerability of the human condition. Both approach, in very different ways, the question of what a face reveals about a person – and what it conceals.

Gisela Beck, Herbert Beck