Bernd and Hilla Becher - Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation New York Thursday, April 4, 2024 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Sonnabend Gallery, New York

  • Exhibited

    The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography 1960-1982, Miami Art Central, 4 March – 17 June 2005

  • Literature

    MIT Press, Bernd and Hilla Becher: Water Towers, pl. 168

  • 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.

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9

Moglingen, Stuttgart, D

1980
Gelatin silver print.
24 x 18 1/2 in. (61 x 47 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil on the verso.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $25,400

Contact Specialist

Caroline Deck
Senior Specialist, Photographs
cdeck@phillips.com

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation

New York Auction 4 April 2024