"And because these types of purpose-built structures can't be preserved forever, we wanted to at least hold them fast in pictures, and so we began to collect them."
—Hilla Becher
Provenance
Sonnabend Gallery, New York Private Collection Bonhams, London, Modern and Contemporary Art, 27 June 2019, lot 58
Exhibited
A major retrospective of Bernd and Hilla Becher's work is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until 6 November 2022.
Literature
Becher, Bernd and Hilla, Water Towers, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1998, pl. 66, Oberhausen, D, 1967 (variant)
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.
1967 Gelatin silver print, printed circa 1989. 23 7/8 x 19 1/4 in. (60.6 x 48.9 cm) Signed by both artists, titled, dated and numbered 3/5 in pencil on the verso.