1930 | Born in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. |
1949-56 | Studied at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts under Karl Hils, Gerhard Gollwitzer, Willi Baumeister, Peter Otto Heim. Fine sheet metal apprenticeship. |
1961 | Hugo von Montfort Prize (Austria). |
1962 | 2nd prize at the 3rd Grand Prix International de Sculpture, Monaco. |
1965 | Member of the Baden-Württemberg Artists' Association. |
1966 | Member of the German Artists' Association, Berlin. |
1967 | Art Prize of the Böttcherstraße, Bremen. |
1972 | Work on "Klangstraße" (sound sculptures), cassette with catalog and record. |
1977 | Scholarship Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. |
1984 | Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. |
1986 | Citizen's Prize at the 3rd Triennial for Small Sculpture, Stuttgart-Fellbach. |
1989 | Awarded the title of professor by the state of Baden-Württemberg. |
1996 | Establishment of the Gerlinde Beck Foundation e.V. |
2001 | Awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. |
2006 | Died in Niefern-Öschelbronn |
Gerlinde Beck was deeply inspired by the expressive dancer Dore Hoyer. Beginning in 1964, she created statuesque, vertically striving, then also inclined and twisted column and pipe forms, which the artist soberly called "stelae", but in which the reference to the human body with torso, head and limbs clearly resonates. From 1969 Beck designs "tube landscapes."
The figures created in the early 1980s in homage to Oskar Schlemmer, Josephine Baker and Dore Hoyer, iron dance choreographies, lines of movement solidified in steel and acrylic paint, balancing acts rotating around their central axis, oscillating between stability and instability, gain a maximum of expressiveness. The three-dimensional works of the following years lead away from the figure, towards movement in space and finally to the suspension of the body volume.