New York (AP) – From industrial landscapes in the Ruhr area to water towers in Manhattan: the German photographer couple Bernd and Hilla Becher have been posthumously honored by the New York Metropolitan Museum with a retrospective. The “Bernd & Hilla Becher” exhibition, which is scheduled to open its doors to visitors on Friday, is the first posthumous retrospective for the artist couple, according to the Central Park Museum in Manhattan. Bernd Becher died in 2007, Hilla Becher in 2015.
“Bernd and Hilla Becher changed the course of photography in the late 20th century and their groundbreaking work continues to inspire artists today,” said Austrian museum director Max Hollein. “It is a privilege to present this first posthumous retrospective and to celebrate her legacy and remarkable artistic output.”
The approximately 200 works provide a broad overview of the work of Bernd Becher, who was born in Siegen, and his wife Hilla Becher, who was born in Potsdam: single, multiple and overview shots of houses and industrial plants in Europe and North America, plus drawings, posters and private ones Notes. At the end of the year, the show will move on to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
He was “really happy and touched” and “very satisfied” with the exhibition, said Max Becher, son of Bernd and Hilla Becher and photographer in New York, the German Press Agency. “It looks really great.” The exhibition offers something for people who have never heard of Bernd and Hilla Becher, as well as for experts – and his parents would have been satisfied, said Max Becher. “Of course, there was always the thought of how my parents would see it. But they often had different opinions – I can imagine at certain points what Bernd or Hilla would have said.”
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