INDUSTRIAL BEAUTY: Bernd and Hilla Becher

INDUSTRIAL BEAUTY: Bernd and Hilla Becher

Live Class: Saturday 28th September 5pm `BST

+ 14 Days Recording Access

With Lucy McGeown

The husband and wife team of Bernd and Hilla Becher began photographing together in 1959. They met whilst studying at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. For close to fifty years, they documented architectural forms they collectively referred to as “anonymous sculpture.” which was the title of their well know photobook produced in 1970. The title is a nod to Marcel Duchamp’s readymades and indicates that the Becher’s referred to industrial buildings as found objects.

Their extensive series of iconic water towers, blast furnaces, coal mine tipples, framework houses of mine workers, and other vernacular industrial architecture—often technologies on the verge of obsolescence—comprise an in-depth study of the intricate relationship between form and function.

Like a biologist, I loved discovering the order of these things, the groupings and families of parts, but I also loved simply the way they looked.”

Hilla Becher

Their work was originally dismissed as ugly and a basic documenting of uninteresting subjects, but over the years, as these industries and industrial landscapes disappeared or became redundant, the works subject was recognised as vital and as well as this, as the body of work and the purpose became clearer, critics agreed there was a beauty to the vision of the pair.

They produced impeccable black and white photographs, using a large-format camera carefully positioned under overcast skies to record shadowless front and side elevation views of their subjects. Arranging these matched photographs in a grid, the Bechers produced what they called “typologies,” which grouped buildings by function, underscoring the similarities and differences between structures.

Based on tutor Lucy’s own interest and practice of drawing industrial structures, we’ll be making observational drawings from the iconic water towers series and then, using quick drawing exercises, we will experiment with extracting the complex myriad of shapes, patterns and lines that exist within these constructions.

The aim of this class is to learn how to take seemingly simple subjects - perhaps subjects that aren’t something you would usually choose- and utilse drawing with charcoal to produce a wealth of interesting results.

Suggested materials for the session:

-a mixture of paper types, thicknesses and different textures (heavy grain to smooth)

-graphite pencils, HB-8B (a few within this range)

-willow charcoal and compressed charcoals

-an eraser, tissue, a cloth

This class is open to all levels!

Everyone is welcome to join this Pay-What-You-Can class

Tickets:

We suggest an amount of £20. However, we understand that may not be possible for everybody. Please be honest and pay what you can afford so that we may continue to offer our sessions on this basis whilst also giving our tutors a sustainable wage.

There is also a ticket option to "Pay It Forward" to support us and our students! We offer classes for free to those who can't afford the minimum amount (If this is you please email us to join for free). This continues to ensure our classes are available to everyone!

Once booked:

You will receive a confirmation email and be able to access information on how to join the event via your eventbrite "Online Event Page" You can access this by signing into eventbrite or creating an account using the email address that you booked with.

In the class:

You can't be seen or heard in our classes, your audio and video are automatically turned off and there's no way these can be turned on. You can talk to us and others in the class in the chat box!

We love to see your drawings or anything else our classes inspire! You can share them with us by tagging us on instagram (@londondrawinggroup) or emailing us if you don't have socials.

More about out tutor:

Lucy McGeown (b.1986) is an artist and teacher based in Margate. She studied Fine Art at UEL and got her Masters from The City and Guilds Art School in 2017. Lucy is one of the founding members of London Drawing Group and started the LDG Kids classes in 2021.

Lucy is incredibly passionate about drawing and the importance of creativity and play in our everyday lives, whatever your age!

To see some of Lucy's work check out her instagram account @lucymcgeown or lucymcgeown.com

ARE YOU TRYING TO BOOK VIA THE EVENTBRITE PHONE APP?!

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IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS OR QUESTIONS PLEASE EMAIL :

hello@londondrawinggroup.com

And that's it!

We're really looking forward to you joining us.

Love,

LDG