Bernd and Hilla Becher - Photographs New York Wednesday, October 12, 2022 | Phillips

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  • 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

    Schirmer/Mosel, Bernd & Hilla Becher. Typologien industrieller Bauten, pl. 45
    Schirmer/Mosel, Bernd & Hilla Becher: Fordertürme, p. 94
    Steidl, New Topographics, p. 270

  • 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

56

Coal Tipple, Goodspring, PA

1975
Four gelatin silver prints, mounted together.
Each 4 1/2 x 6 3/8 in. (11.4 x 16.2 cm)
Overall 16 x 19 1/2 in. (40.6 x 49.5 cm)

Signed, dated by both artists in pencil and copyright credit stamp on the reverse of the mount; titled and numbered 21/60 in pencil on the mount.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for $15,120

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs, New York
skrueger@phillips.com


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

Photographs

New York Auction 12 October 2022