Background
Beck was born in Alsógöd in 1911. His father an artist Ödön Fülöp Beck trained him from a young age and he later became a pupil of Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl at the Hungarian Art School for three years where he his talent began to flourish.
Career
He was noted for his symbolic and expressionist bronze statuettes and portrait busts. He left on a study trip to Berlin and then London where his early works were exhibited. In 1947 was appointed the President of the Trade Union of Hungarian Artists, subsequently leaving for Paris where in 1948 he became teacher of the Art School.
From the 1930s he became well known for his expressionist sculpture, creating plaquettes of Árpád Tóth, Bartók, Móricz, and Thomas Mann.
Between 1945 and 1955 he was hired to sculpt figures for display in various towns and cities. Settling permanently in Paris in 1956, in 1963 his lyrical works were exhibited at the Galerie Lambert.
In the late 1960s he created Refugees (1967) and Dance (1969) and his famous Masque de Saint-John Perse bronze mask of writer Saint-John Perse. He died in Paris in 1985 in a car accident.
His 3.5m tall statue commemorating the death of January Palach was transported from France to the Czechoslovakian Republic to be installed in Mělník, the city of studies of January Palach, on the occasion of 40th anniversary of his death.