Property of a Distinguished Private Collection
130
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Gas Tanks (Spherical)
- Estimate
- £60,000 - 80,000‡♠
£152,400
Lot Details
black and white photographs, in 9 parts
signed 'Hilla Becher Bernd Becher' on the reverse of the first part; signed and titled 'GAS TANKS Bernd Becher Hilla Becher' on a label affixed to the backing board of the first part; numbered on the reverse of each part
each image 40.5 x 31 cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/4 in.)
each framed 56.3 x 46.2 cm (22 1/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
overall framed 171.9 x 141.6 cm (67 5/8 x 55 3/4 in.)
each framed 56.3 x 46.2 cm (22 1/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
overall framed 171.9 x 141.6 cm (67 5/8 x 55 3/4 in.)
Executed in 1988.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Provenance
Bernd and Hilla Becher
GermanHusband 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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