Bernd and Hilla Becher | Industriebauten

 

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Industriebauten

Mönchengladbach, Germany: Städtischen Museum, 1968

19.3 x 15.5cm.

Edition of 55

The third in the series of Stadtisches boxed catalogue/multiple hybrids is the rarest of them all, and the most expensive. The work has an estimated value of over twenty thousand dollars. It originally sold for 15 DM. 

Housed in a facsimile of a Agfa-Gaevert photo-paper box, the works consists of ten gelatine silver prints of the Becher’s "anonymous sculpture” (silos, gas tanks, towers, etc). 

Rather than the high edition sizes of the other boxes (which tend to range from 220 to 660 copies), this was produced in an edition of 55. Each photograph is stamped on the verso (see below) with the couple’s copyright. 

“[Johannes] Cladders’s early 1968 institutional presentation of the Bechers’ celebrated photographs of industrial architecture helped establish them as “conceptual photographers.” The box associated with this exhibition contained ten original silver gelatin prints along with a curatorial text. Although the show, with its meticulous documentary dryness, was presumably not to everyone’s taste, how amazing it must have been for some to be able to view the photography on display and then bring home this beautiful print object including actual photographs.”

- Lucy Ives

Nigel Greenwood

Gallerist Nigel Greenwood (1941 - 2004) was an early promoter of conceptual art and proponent of artists' books. He worked with a number of artists central to both, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, Marcel Broodthaers, Dieter Roth, Gilbert & George, Richard Hamilton, Barry Le Va, Bruce Nauman, Richard Tuttle and Ed Ruscha.

Greenwood presented Books - the first UK exhibition of Ruscha's bookworks - at his London gallery in January of 1971. The exhibition poster graphic is the famed image of Ruscha laying on the floor, covered by his books.

Greenwood was inspired by the idealism of the format and followed Ruscha's example, publishing artists' books to accompany his exhibitions, instead of producing catalogues. He published the Gilbert & George books Side By Side and Dark Shadow, as well as their Reclining Drunk ashtray (see earlier post, here). Gilbert & George first performed their infamous Singing Sculpture at Greenwood's gallery in 1970, when they were still students.

In 1972, Greenwood mounted what many consider the first survey exhibition on the subject of artists' books, and published the accompanying Germano Celant volume Book as Artwork 1960/1972. The text was highly influential and has recently been reprinted by 6 Decades Books.

After his death in 2004, the State Library of Queensland acquired a collection of 214 artists' books from Greenwood's personal collection. Alongside Ruscha titles, the Nigel Greenwood Collection features bookworks by Francesco Clemente, Lawrence Weiner, Gerd Winner, Richard Kostelanetz,  Sol Lewitt and many others.

An exhibition of material from the Nigel Greenwood Inc Ltd archive has just been announced at the Chelsea College of Art and Design (16 John Islip Street, London, SW1P 4JU). The exhibition, which will include works and documentation from many of the above artists (much of never displayed in public before), will open June 8th at and will run until July 15th.

It will be accompanied by a publication edited by Greenwood's daughter Phoebe, which will include original contributions from Gilbert & George, Lynda Morris, Ed Ruscha and others.

ACBA: The Bechers for Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Baarn, The Netherlands: Philips, 1970
12" vinyl LP
Edition size unknown

Released in November 1970, the debut album from the electronic band that formed in Düsseldorf earlier in the year, was purely instrumental, performed on a variety of traditional instruments which were altered in post-production. The disk is long out of print and has never had an official CD release. The band has referred to their first 3 records as "archaeology" and have not performed tracks from the debut live since 1975.

The cover is credited to Ralf Hütter, the singer, keyboardist and sole founding member to continue with the group. The gatefold inner sleeve photograph of a power station is by Bernd and Hilla Becher,  who also hailed from Düsseldorf.

Kraftwerk performed at the Sony Centre in Toronto last night (see below iPhone pic).