Fördertürme (Shaft Towers)

Details

Bernd & Hilla Becher (1931-2007 & b. 1934)
Fördertürme (Shaft Towers)
gelatin silver prints, in twelve parts
each: 15 7/8 x 12 1/8in. (40.4 x 30.7cm.)
overall: 82¼ x 71¼in. (209 x 181cm.)
Executed in 1966-79

Provenance

André Simoens Gallery, Knokke.
Vanthournout Collection, Izegem.
Their sale, Sotheby's New York, 15 November 2006, lot 433.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

B.& H. Becher, Typologien, Munich 1990 (illustrated, unpaged).
A. Zweite, Bernd & Hilla Becher: Typologies, Cambridge 2004, no. 56 (illustrated, unpaged).

Exhibited

Essen, Museum Folkwang, Bernd & Hilla Becher - Fördertürme Chevalements Mineheads, 1985 (illustrated, pp. 37 (xi), 98 (vi), 99 (vii), 100 (v), 101 (i), 102 (ii), 106 (x), 107 (ix), 109 (xii)). This exhibition later travelled to Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Liège, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Liège.
Venice, XLIV Esposizione Internationale d'Arte: La Biennale di Venezia Bernd & Hilla Becher: Tipologie, Typologien, Typologies, 1990-91. This exhibition later travelled to Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein; Cambridge, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and Cleveland, Center for Contemporary Art.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

From left to right; top to bottom:
(i) Siège Cheratte, Puits no. 3, Liège, 1970
(ii) Fosse Grenay no. 1, Bully-les-Mines, Nord, 1967
(iii) Fosse Vicoigne no. 3, Valenciennes, Nord, 1967
(iv) Siège Josè, Hevre, 1970
(v) Siège Micheroux, Liège, 1971
(vi) Fosse Dutemple, Valenciennes, Nord 1967
(vii) Siège Colard, Liège-Seraing, 1969
(viii) Charbonnage Monceau Fontaine, Charleroi, 1967
(ix) Morton Colliery, Derbyshire, 1974
(x) Siège Cuvelette, Merlebach, Lorraine, 1978
(xi) Bold Colliery, St. Helens, Lancashire 1966
(xii) Fosse Grenay no. 11, Grenay, Nord, 1967

'Technology is above requiring an interpretation; it interprets itself. You merely need to select the right objects and place them precisely in the picture; then they tell their story of their own accord.' (M. Köhler, 'Interview mit Bernd und Hilla Becher', in Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich, 1989, p. 14. Reprinted in A. Zweite, 'Bernd and Hilla Becher's "Suggestion for a Way of Seeing": Ten Key Ideas' in Bernd & Hilla Becher: Typologies, Cambridge, 2004, p. 9).

Fördertürme (Shaft Towers)

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