Bernd Becher
Fördertürme

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Artist Bernd Becher(German, 1931–2007)German, 1931–2007

Artist Hilla Becher (German, 1934–2015)German, 1934–2015

CultureGerman

Titles

Fördertürme
Shaft Towers
Fosse Dutemple bei Valenciennes, Nordfrankreich
Dutemple Mine at Valenciennes, northern France

Date1967

PlaceGermany

MediumGelatin silver prints

DimensionsOverall: 39 7/8 × 28 7/8 in. (101.3 × 73.3 cm)
Sheet (top four): 11 3/4 × 9 1/2 in. (29.8 × 24.1 cm)
Sheet (bottom two): 5 5/8 × 9 3/8 in. (14.3 × 23.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of Manfred Heiting, The Manfred Heiting Collection

Object number2002.635

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Manfred Heiting Collection of Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionAs photographers and professors at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, the husband-and-wife duo of Bernd and Hilla Becher influenced an entire generation of German photographers with their typological approach in which a single archetypal subject is described through an accumulation of diverse examples. For more than three decades, they systematically examined the dilapidated industrial architecture of Europe and North America, from water towers and blast furnaces to the surrounding workers’ houses, all recorded against a blank sky and without expressive effects. In constructing a typology of vernacular architectural subjects, like the shaft towers presented here, they redirected the focus of Modernist architectural photography away from documentation of the iconic building towards revelation of the essence of collective built space.
Provenance Research Ongoing Exhibition History"Contemporary Photos from the Manfred Heiting Collection," Museum of Fine Arts Houston, May 17–August 10, 2003.

"Contemporary Photography from the Collection of the MFAH," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 15, 2003–January 4, 2004.

“The Will to Architecture,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 1–July 6, 2014.

"The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 25, 2020–January 10, 2021.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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