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Date: B. 1934

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Description: (i) signed and dated Bernhard Becher 67
(ii) signed and dated Bernhard Becher 65
(iii) signed and dated Bernhard Becher 63

gelatin silver print, in three parts

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Dimensions: each: 40 by 30cm.

15 3/4 by 11 7/8 in.

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Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner circa 1968

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Published: Bernd & Hilla Becher and Pierre Restany, "Bernd & Hilla Becher: Anonyme Skulpturen", in: Kunst-Zeitung, No. 2, January 1969, p. 3 (iii) and p. 9 (i), illustrations of later examples
Bernd & Hilla Becher, Anonyme Skulpturen. Eine Typologie technischer Bauten, Düsseldorf 1970, p. 23 (iii), 44 (ii) and 58 (i), illustrations of later examples
Götz Adriani in Exhibition Catalogue, Sao Paulo, 14. Biennale Sao Paulo: Bernd & Hilla Becher: Typologien Industrieller Bauten, 1963-1975, 1977, p. 32 (i), illustration of a later example
Thierry de Duve, Bernd & Hilla Becher: Basic Forms, New York 1999, cover and no. 8 (ii), illustration of a later example
Exhibition Catalogue, Düsseldorf, K 20 K 21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen; Munich, Haus der Kunst; Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou; Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Typologien Industrieller Bauten, Munich 2004, pl. 20 (iii and i) and pl. 23 (ii), illustrations of later examples

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Notes: The present typology of three cooling towers - with either brick, wood or steel exteriors - provides a rare opportunity to acquire a set of very early vintage prints by Bernd & Hilla Becher. Having continued to work in an unchanged style and technique for nearly forty years, they have created a remarkable archive of documentary photographs, recording industrial emblems of modern society and presenting them as art with an unswerving single-minded precision and clarity that has become their signature.

When a subject calls for treatment in a single photograph, "Their goal is to choose the best general view...They only photograph on days when cloud cover diffuses the sunlight and helps to eliminate the play of light and shadow that they feel does more to confuse than to reveal their subjects. They elevate the camera above ground level...to create the illusion that the subject is being observed at a height midway up. When perspectival views are required, they avoid the oblique and the obtuse... if the proper viewpoint cannot be obtained, the subject must be abandoned. Patience is an essential virtue in the creation of this art." (Bernd & Hilda Becher, Watertowers, Massachusetts 1997, p. 10) The consistency of their stylistic approach over many decades suggests a minute-to-minute account: deadpan portraits of unadorned structures that express an industrial era which we have since virtually lost to modern development.

Appearing isolated and without human presence, the apparatus of industry become monumental sculptures in and of themselves, whilst simultaneously symbolic of a society founded on the premise of functionality and efficiency. Presented in typological series under as similar shooting circumstances as is possible to promote objectivity, Bernd and Hilla Becher's work focuses our attention on the relationships between the photographs rather than on the individual images. In doing so, they are creating an identity for the objects that had not existed before.

Left to right:

Montceau-les-Mines, France, 1967
Herne, Germany, 1965
Essen, Germany, 1963