Hauser & Wirth Zürich is hosting an exhibition of photographs titled “Bernd and Hilla Becher” in Zurich. The exhibition, showcasing an overview of works by the conceptual photographer duo, with a special focus on their iconic deadpan photography featuring industrial structures were executed during the late 1960s through the early 1990s. The works on view are selected by Max Becher and the show was organized in collaboration with Olivier Renaud-Clément.The show examines the Bechers’ oeuvre encompassing five of their most commonly used subjects which includes blast furnaces, gas tanks, water towers, cooling towers, and winding towers. The show exhibits 17 of these iconic photographs demonstrating the Bechers’ untiring and painstaking dedication towards documentation of urban forms spanning over 40 years.Making a statement about their legacy of being the leaders of conceptual photography, the exhibition runs its course. The Bechers were a direct influence to a generation of competent conceptual photographers being the professors of photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The names include Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth. Back in 1957, Bernd Becher and Hilla Wobeser met as students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Shortly after their rendezvous they began their collaborative project of photographing structures of Germany, their home country. Their worked mainly focused on documenting for posterity of the rapidly changing landscapes during the early 1960s. Most of their photographs were taken with an 8x10-inch, large-format camera with set a strict set of rules for each of these photographs. The list includes the works titled “Zeche Hannibal, Bochum, Ruhrgebiet, D” (1973), which was an image that had been taken from a full-frontal view on an overcast day to eliminate shadows. All of these images were taken always without human presence. The uniformity of these works was extended with their representation in stark black-and-white prints and the consistent sizing alongside the frequent representation of grids. This form of approach, the visual cataloguing of the Bechers’, is most significantly seen in the works presented.These photographs were often divided into groups by the types of their featuring structures and were systematically presented through grid formats, creating a single typology. Through this format, the viewers were able to identify the common features presented in urban structures recognizing dissimilarities in their designs that were due to their different geographical origins. The exhibition is on view through December 22, 2017, at Hauser & Wirth Zürich Limmatstrasse, 270, 8005 Zürich.For details, visit:http://www.blouinartinfo.com/galleryguide/hauser-and-wirth/overviewClick on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the artworks.
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