MARTA BECKET (American, 1924-?). "Empire Juvenile Talent Agency". Oil on masonite. Signed lower left MARTA BECKET - 1963. Good condition no damage or repair. Marta Becket is an actress, dancer, choreographer and painter who performed for more than four decades at her own theater, the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California. Amargosa (2000), Todd Robinson's documentary about Marta Becket won a 2003 Emmy Award. Painting measures 16" x 20". Frame measures 21 ½" x 25 ½".

From the Calabi Gallery website: “Marta Becket was born in 1925 in New York. As her father was a newspaper reporter, she was introduced to the arts at an early age, attending the best opera, ballet, and theater around. By the time she was three years old, she had developed a strong desire to dance. When she was six she moved briefly to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with her mother, and then to Philadelphia where she began developing as an artist under the guidance of Antonio Cortizas. By the time she was twelve she returned to New York, where she spent her high school years ballet dancing at Washington Irving High School. While amazing her dance teachers with her natural talent, she also studied piano and art.

Becket had a successful career in New York as a professional dancer, and toured throughout the country performing her repertoire. In the spring of 1967 they discovered the Amargosa Hotel in Death Valley Junction, where she immediately felt as if time had stopped. The couple rented and renovated the tiny abandoned theater located behind the hotel, and opened its doors on February 10th, 1968, renaming it the Amargosa Opera House. After a terrible flash flood in the summer of 1968, Beckett was inspired to paint an entire audience on the theater interior. The murals took her four years to complete. On the west wall, a marble statue is painted holding a scroll written in Latin which reads, “the walls of this theater and I dedicate these murals to the past without which our times would have no beauty. Fin 1972.” Since this time, the Opera House has been featured on television, premiering on The Great Mohave Desert for National Geographic. After her completion of the theater walls, she moved on to the ceiling, which took her an additional two years.

In 2001, the Las Vegas Art Museum exhibited a retrospective of Becket’s art “spanning over six decades.” The feature length documentary Amargosa was completed, and has aired on Discovery and Sundance channels. Beckett presently continues to dance, act, and paint.”