Bernd and Hilla Becher

David Zwirner, New York
Gladstone Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Bernd and Hilla Becher, Mineheads, Cambridge 1997, nos. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, partially illustrated
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Typologien, Typologies, Munich 1999, n.p., partially illustrated
Armin Zweite, Ed., Bernd and Hilla Becher: Typologies, Cambridge 2004, no. 58, partially illustrated
Susanne Lange, Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work, Cambridge 2007, p. 119, no. 20, partially illustrated

This work is in very good condition. The sheets are adhered to the backing mount in several places on the reverse. There is light bumping to some of the corners of the prints, and some mild adhesive staining to the mount in places.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

As a highlight within Adam Sender’s visionary collection, Lots 366 to 368 offer an exceptional insight into Bernd and Hilla Becher’s ground-breaking practice. Heralded as the “great encyclopaedic artists of their generation” by art historian Armin Zweite (Armin Zweite, Ed., Typologies of Industrial Buildings: Bernd and Hilla Becher, Munich 2004, p. 21), the German couple have strongly influenced artists from younger generations, an influence that is perhaps mostly felt on the generation of artists that studied under them at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where Bernd Becher’s class achieved legendary status, and which includes internationally acclaimed artists such as Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer. Archetypal of the Becher’s iconic Typologies, each of the following works is a powerful example of their incredibly rigorous practice.

The couple first met in 1957 at the Staatliche Düsseldorf Kunstakademie, where their shared passion for photography and a keen interest in a meticulous documentation of the urban landscape inevitably brought them together. Throughout their lifelong partnership Bernd and Hilla Becher travelled extensively around the world, consistently using a large format camera placed on a tripod to achieve their signature black and white, crisp images. Cool and elegant in composition, each photograph was then carefully assembled in a grid following the traditional procedures of typological classification they had both studied. Featuring images of water tanks, cooling towers, blast furnaces and electrical towers among other purely functional buildings, the Bechers’ Typologies offer a unique analysis of the post war Zeitgeist, acting as powerful historical documents.

Executed between 1966 and 1973, Fördertürme, Four Electrical Towers and Kühltürme are quintessential examples of the Bechers’ unprecedented production, a singular vision that has imparted one of the most significant photographic and influential artistic legacies from the Twentieth Century.