Blast Furnaces

Bernhard Becher, artist

1931–2007

Hilla Becher, artist

born 1934

Blast Furnaces, 1996

Where object was made: Germany

Material/technique: gelatin silver print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 381 x 323 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 1158 x 144 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 15 x 12 11/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 45 9/16 x 5 11/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 22 x 18 1/4 x 1 1/4 in
Weight (Weight): 4 lbs

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1996.0048.03

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Archive Label 2003: Bernd and Hilla Becher have worked in collaboration since 1959. Together, they make photographs of such industrial structures as cooling towers, grain elevators, and blast furnaces, which they then arrange into grid-like compositions. The Bechers title their groupings “typologies,” studies of functionally similar structures that highlight the aesthetic variations. As seen in Blast Furnaces, the Bechers manipulate their images so that each fragment and each work taken as a whole functions in the manner of a still life, as inanimate objects removed from all function. The images are tightly cropped in order to eliminate any reference to specific locale or human activity. The Bechers photograph each structure from a similar vantage point and under overcast skies that allow for little shadow, furthering an anonymous and repetitive quality, as if one still life element could easily be substituted for another. Exhibition Label: "Modernisms: Late/Post," Mar-1997, Deborah J. Wilk The husband-and-wife team of Bernd and Hilla Becher travel around Western Europe taking pictures of industrial vernacular architecture. The photographs are then grouped together by type and presented in grids they call "typologies." Each structure is photographed individually, in sharp focus, from similar vantage points, and under overcast skies that allow for little shadow.