Beck studied at Oberlin (Ohio) College where her first one-person exhibition was presented at the College's Allen Art Museum in 1944. She also studied at Columbia University, New York University, and with Robert Motherwell. From the mid-1940s to mid-1950s she was a regular exhibitor with the Woodstock (New York) Artists' Association; her first of many one-person show in New York occurred at the Peridot Gallery in 1953. She was six times recipient of Yaddo fellowships between 1954 and 1966; received an Ingram Merrill Grant, 1966; a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a French ADEC both, 1986. The Academy has awarded her Altman prizes in 1986 and in 1989.
Beck has been a lecturer at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1957-58 and 1961-64; and at Middlebury (Vermont) College, 1958-60; since 1968 she has been a member of the art faculty of Queens College of the City University of New York. In 1986 the Academy elected her to a three-year term as a member of the Council. Her work has been regularly shown by the Ingber Gallery, New York, since 1980.
