Bernd and Hilla Becher - Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Friday, November 14, 2014 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Sonnabend Gallery, New York
    Private Collection

  • Exhibited

    New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, A Family Album: Brooklyn Collects, March 2 - July 1, 2001

  • Artist Biography

    Bernd and Hilla Becher

    German • Bernd 1931-2007 - Hilla 1934-2015

    Husband and wife Bernd and Hilla Becher began photographing buildings and relics of the Industrial Revolution, such as coal mines and cooling towers, in 1959. Like objective scientists removing a specimen from the field, the Bechers framed their subject in a manner that isolated it from its environment. Often, these stark, beautifully detailed prints were then displayed in grid-like structures, forming stunning 'Typologies'.

    By the time Bernd Becher became a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1976 (policy would not allow Hilla to be a simultaneous appointment), the Bechers' photographs, with their seemingly neutral point of view and serial display, were already being applauded by the international art world as important works of Minimal and Conceptual Art.

    View More Works

236

Watertowers

1988
gelatin silver prints, in 9 parts
image 15 7/8 x 12 in. (40.3 x 30.5 cm)
sheet 21 3/4 x 17 1/2 in. (55.2 x 44.5 cm)
frame 22 3/4 x 18 1/2 in. (57.8 x 47 cm)

Signed, titled and annotated with installation grid and dated "WATERTOWERS 1988 Bernd Becher Hilla Becher" on a label affixed to the reverse of the mount of the first image; further, each sequentially numbered "1-9" on the reverse of the mounts.

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for $143,000

Contact Specialist
Kate Bryan
Head of Day Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1267

Contemporary Art Day Sale

New York Auction 14 November 2014 11am