Bernd and Hilla Becher - Photographs London Thursday, May 20, 2021 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Sonnabend Gallery, New York

  • Literature

    Bernd and Hilla Becher: Water Towers, Cambridge: MIT, 1988, pl. 49

  • 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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13

Water Tower, New York City, Broadway/Spring Street

1979
Gelatin silver print.
61 x 51.4 cm (24 x 20 1/4 in.)
Signed by both artists, titled, dated and numbered 1/5 in pencil on the verso.

Estimate
£8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠

Sold for £10,080

Contact Specialist

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London


Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe


General Enquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

 

Photographs

London Auction 20 May 2021