SIGNED; Boris Becker - Bunker 1984-89 - 2019

700 (!) BUNKER in more than 40 (!) WEST GERMAN cities -
shown in this HIGHLY IMPRESSIVE BOOK by Boris Becker, pupil of the famous class of Professor Bernd Becher at "Kunstakademie Düsseldorf" (i am offering als a fantastic C-print of this series in this auction).

Signed by the artist.
I GUARANTEE THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE SIGNATURE.

Boris Becker studied photography under Professor Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 1984 and 1990. Boris Becker belongs to the younger generation of Becher students who helped to establish the enormous significance of photography in contemporary art.
Bernd Becher became a professor in 1976 and taught in the artist class for photography until 1999.

VERY FRESH CONDITION.

Welcome to the ONE-SELLER-AUCTION by Ecki Heuser, 5Uhr30.com (Cologne, Germany) on Catawiki -
this time presenting a BEST-OF „GERMAN PHOTOBOOKS“.
Like always we guarantee detailed and accurate descriptions, 100% transport protection, 100% transport insurance and of course combined shipping - worldwide.

As both an artist’s book and an archive book, this publication also introduces an important and poignant theme of German history. On show are the most diverse types of bunkers, built in particular during World War II between 1940 and 1944, ­looked at in the period between 1984 and 1989 by artist and photographer Boris Becker. When he began his documentary project, the Cold War period was almost over, and the concrete buildings were no longer needed for civil defense purposes. Even more so than in the past, they appeared like outlandish and seemingly uncanny monsters within the cityscapes. Their function seemed out of date, and no rational-minded person wanted anything to do with the murderous ideology that had brought these buildings to light. »Nie wieder Krieg!« (no more war!), those are the words of a graffiti on one of the bunkers taken by Boris Becker. When ­looking at his factually registering photographic ­documents, we not only encounter unusually ­monstrous concrete buildings, but this specific topic also informs us about the extent of these ­construction activities during World War II. Boris Becker has photographed around 700 ­bunkers in more than 40 West German cities. Boris ­Becker based the series of works of the ­overground bunkers, so-called Hochbunker, on a ­method similar to the conceptual approach by artist couple Bernd and Hilla Becher. The comparability of the images is just as intentional as a neutral perspective and a detailed and authentic-adequate ­representation of the building. The volume at hand allows an ­exemplary look at a theme that was worked out in the circle of the so-called Becher School and for Boris Becker represented a significant starting point for his further work with the medium of photog­raphy. He has since focused on architecture, landscape, objects and still lifes as subjects of his attention, as well as the complex question of the reality beyond what is visually ­perceptible.

Snoeck, Cologne. 2019. Hardcover (as issued). 225 x 275 mm. 352 pages. 850 plates in Duotone and 45 coloured illustrations. Photos: Boris Becker. Texts by Roland Augustin, Marcel Beyer, Gabriele Conrath-Scholl. Text in French, English, German.

Condition:
Inside and outside new and unread, excepted little bump at the bottom of the spine (with neat, nearly invisible consequence for the first pages), otherwise brandnew. Still originally shrink-wrapped in publisher's plastic foil; only opened once for the signature. Overall fine condition.

Great photobook in very fresh condition - signed by the artist.

The artist Boris Becker is among the most important representatives of the German photographic scene.
As a second-generation student of Bernd and Hilla Becher, he sets off with his camera in pursuit of motifs that are more structural in nature in terms of form and concentrates more on colour accents rather than reacting to the usual art historically motivated sign stimuli of urban or nature views.
Since the mid-nineteen eighties, he has developed a wide spectrum of thematic complexes.
His series of bunker photographs in which he produced an almost encyclopaedic compendium of German bunkers from the Second World War encompasses 700 images, forms the most comprehensive group. This was followed by photographs of apartment blocks and other architectonic constructions.
Alongside these works, Becker has also regularly taken photographs of landscapes. Becker’s most recent works include the group of photos entitled Artefacts. These works contain images of individual or accumulated objects as well as Fakes with photographs of objects that were ‘faked’ to smuggle drugs.