Bernd and Hilla Becher
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Bernd Becher (born August 20th 1931 in Siegen; died June 22nd 2007 in Rostock) and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (September 2, 1934 – October 10, 2015) were a German artist couple, best known for their photographic images of industrial buildings.
The Bechers raised typology to an art form by photographing countless similar architectural features including water towers, workers' houses and industrial landscapes. Their machine aesthetic is reminiscent of Charles Sheeler.
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Background
Bernd Becher studied painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart from 1953 to 1956, then typography under Karl Rössing at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie from 1959 to 1961.
Prior to Hilla Becher's time studying photography at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie from 1958 to 1961, she had completed an apprenticeship as a photographer in her native Potsdam.
The couple married in 1961.
Life and Work
The Bechers first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959, and had their first Gallery exhibition in 1963 at the Galerie Ruth Nohl in Siegen. They were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. In addition, they were intrigued by the fact that so many of these industrial buildings seemed to have been built with a great deal of attention toward design. Together, the Bechers went out with a large format camera and photographed these buildings from a number of different angles, but always with a straightforward "objective" point of view. The images of structures with similar functions were then displayed side by side to invite viewers to compare their forms and designs. These structures included barns, water towers, storage silos, and warehouses.
The Bechers also photographed outside of Germany, including buildings from the United States and other areas of Europe. Bernd taught at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and influenced students that later made a name for themselves in the photography industry. Former students of Bernd's included Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, and Candida Höfer.
They were the 2004 winners of the Hasselblad Award. The motivation for the award:
- Bernd and Hilla Becher are among the most influential artists of our time. For more than forty years they have been recording the heritage of an industrial past. Their systematic photography of functionalist architecture, often organizing their pictures in grids, brought them recognition as conceptual artists as well as photographers. As the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ they have brought their influence in a unique way to bear on generations of documentary photographers and artists.
Famous Photographs
- Industrial Facade #23, c1980.
- Cooling towers, Wood n B, 1976. (Sold for $150,000 at auction in 2004. It is one of couple's highest selling work.)
Books
- Anonymous Sculptures: A Typology of Technical Construction, 1970.
- Water Towers, 1988.
- Blast Furnaces, 1990.
- Pennsylvania Coal Mine Tipples, 1991.
- Gas Tanks, 1993.
- Industrial Facades, 1995.
- Mineheads, 1997.
- Framework Houses, 2001.
- Industrial Landscapes, 2002.
- Basic Forms of Industrial Buildings, 2004. ISBN 3-8296-0150-6.
- Typologies, 2004. ISBN 0-262-02565-5.
- Cooling Towers, 2006.
- Grain Elevators, 2006.
See also
