Bernd & Hilla Becher at the Metropolitan Museum

[Oren Grad]

At the Stedelijk, I finally just walked in a loop around the room. When I walked a bit faster, I began to see it, the variations between the photographs. Then it hit me, it was like I was getting an object lesson in vision. Suddenly, every difference in lines of brick, in door placement, in roof shape, began to acquire significance and it was a feast for my eyes. In some ways I felt like it was almost like when I looked at abstract painting, freed from depiction. It had that quality.

Hilla Becher said: “By placing several cooling towers side by side something happened, something like tonal music; you don’t see what makes the objects different until you bring them together, so subtle are their differences.”

So I think there's an experience to be had there beyond the subject matter.

Probably an interesting discussion to be had about what makes for a visually effective typology.

[Duolab123]

So great.

[r.e.]

The Met is doing a virtual opening and guided tour on YouTube tomorrow at 7PM EDT (New York time). From the description: "Join Jeff Rosenheim, Joyce Frank Menschel Curator in Charge, Department of Photographs, for a virtual tour of Bernd & Hilla Becher, a retrospective celebrating the renowned German artists, Bernd and Hilla Becher (1931–2007; 1934–2015)..."

[r.e.]

I think that the Met did a nice job on the 26 minute video that it published on YouTube tonight (see post above). Excellent introduction to the Bechers' work and particularly useful for anyone who plans to see the show. After an introduction by Met Director Max Hollein, Photography Curator Jeff Rosenheim provides a guided tour of the exhibit and insights into the Bechers' photography. If you want to skip Hollein's introduction, start at 2:30.

[h2oman]

Thanks for the post of the video. Has anyone seen the book from the exhibition yet? I'm curious about the quality of the printing - will probably purchase it.

[r.e.]

The NY Times published its review a couple of days ago. It was written by the Times's Art Critic, Blake Gopnik, who has been the Art Critic at the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Washington Post and now the NY Times. Gopnik grew up in Montreal in architect Moshe Safdie's residential complex Habitat 67, and early on worked as a commercial photographer. His brother is New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik.

Unfortunately, the review is behind the NYT paywall and I don't know what access non-subscribers have (it used to be about 20 articles per month): Photography's Delightful Obsessives

From the first few paragraphs:

These and something like another 450 images fill “Bernd & Hilla Becher,” a fascinating, frankly gorgeous show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met’s curator of photography, Jeff Rosenheim, has organized a thorough retrospective for the Bechers, a German couple who made some of the most influential art photos of the last half century. Bernd (1931-2007) and Hilla (1934-2015) mentored generations of students at Düsseldorf’s great Kunstakademie, whose alumni include major photographic artists like Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer.

But for all the heft of the heavy industry on view in the Met show — it’s easy to imagine the stink and smoke and racket that pressed in on the Bechers as they worked — you come away with an overall impression of lightness, of delightful order, even sometimes of gentle comedy.