Bernd & Hilla Becher (1931-2007 & b. 1934)
Lot 161

Bernd & Hilla Becher (1931-2007 & b. 1934)

Fördertürme (Shaft Towers)

Closed29 June 2011

Price Realised

GBP 85,250

More Information

How to sell

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

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.

Specialist note

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).