Maureen Paley presents a joint exhibition of works by James Welling and Bernd & Hilla Becher. This will be the fifth presentation of Welling at the gallery and the first exhibition including the Bechers with kind assistance from Sprüth Magers and Max Becher.
Though the Bechers began their practice in the 1960s – preceding Welling by a decade – each artist has pushed at the medium of photography in their representation of architecture. Welling first saw photographs by the Bechers at the seminal 1970 MoMA exhibition, Information, and he met Hilla Becher three years later whilst studying at CalArts. In 2022, following the Bechers’ retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Welling reflected on their work in an essay he wrote for the Brooklyn Rail, reaffirming his long-standing admiration for their “pursuit of a singular photographic dream.”(1)
James Welling is known for his work that considers the history and technical specificities of photography. Since 2023, Welling has worked on his Thought Objects, in which he experiments with exaggerated “unsharp masks”, a common set of image sharpening tools that are often imperceptible. Welling instead modifies these unsharp masks to produce halos, exaggerated bas-relief effects, and intensified saturation, underscoring the fluidity and malleability of photographic images.
The German artist duo Bernd and Hilla Becher began their programme of methodically photographing disappearing industrial structures in 1957. Over five decades, the Bechers captured water towers, gas tanks, blast furnaces, and other functional buildings, primarily in Europe and North America. Their work can be read as an elaborate anthropological project devoted to documenting the architecture of various locations and industries, once the key engines of modernity.
| Duration | 07 March 2025 - 19 April 2025 |
| Times | Wednesday – Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Maureen Paley (Three Colts Lane) |
| Address | 60 Three Colts Lane, London, E2 6GQ |
| Contact | 4402077294112 / info@maureenpaley.com / www.maureenpaley.com |