Bernd & Hilla Becher

Set of 72 photographs divided into  6 typologies
Inv 1991-28 (1 to 6)

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Bernd and Hilla Becher were forerunners of the new objective German photography, who used, for their own account, the legacy of August Sander.  On 9 March 1969, they exhibited at the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf with a series of photographs of  Hauts-fourneaux, Gazomètres,  Châteaux d’eau,  Tours de refroidissements and Pompes à pétrole uner the title Sculptures anonymes.  This series represents the essential data of a very objective photographic inventory (typologies)--a visual memory of obsolete industries.  Each typology encompasses twelve carefully organized photographs, arrayed in horizontal and vertical lines, typifying the industrial aesthetics of a period.

Diagnosis

Certain photographs show colour alterations. 

Intervention

In her Düsseldorf studio, thanks to the patronage of  Sotheby’s, Hilla Becher carried out a re-print of the photos making it possible to retain the aesthetic coherence of each typology.