Boris Becker – From experimental film to art photography
Boris Becker was born in Cologne in 1961, the son of the poet Jürgen Becker was born with a taste for the fine arts. Unlike his father, however, Boris Becker found his creative form of expression in pictures rather than words. He was initially interested in moving pictures: In 1982, he began a course at the Hochschüle der Künste in Berlin and became intensively involved with experimental film, under the guidance of Wolfgang Ramsbott. The state of technology at that time could only provide him with large, clunky video equipment, and so he eventually moved to photography and thus also to Düsseldorf, where he studied with Bernd Becher at the Art Academy, becoming a master student. Becker himself is also considered a member of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. His early works, however, were by no means always met with the undivided approval of his teacher Bernd Becher, who took particular offense at the frequent use of colour film in the famous bunker pictures. Nevertheless, it was precisely these bunker pictures that brought Boris Becker his artistic breakthrough.
The breakthrough with bunker pictures
The bunkers, the unloved architectural legacy of the repressed and denounced World War II era, represented Boris Becker’s first important artistic subject, one which has accompanied him throughout his career. Although he is aware that his photographs cannot capture the horror that took place behind the walls, his concern is to make the facets hidden behind the unassuming exterior perceptible. The poet and Georg Büchner Prize winner Marcel Beyer paid tribute to these bunker photographs with his poem Die Bunkerkönigin. In recognition of his achievements, Boris Becker received a scholarship from the Villa Massimo in 1997/98 which enabled him to spend time in Rome. Later, too, he was often drawn to foreign countries, and as well as Italy, he searched for suitable motifs in Belgium, Poland, and of course Germany. Following in the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia, Becker photographed the endless sand dunes in western Algeria.
Corona changed the art of Boris Becker
Corona gave Boris Becker a new perspective on his art: of all people, he, who had been famous for many years for his iconic depictions of deserted squares and buildings, turned his attention to people under the impact of enforced lockdown. More and more frequently, Becker now photographs people. The visual range of his previous work has changed. The audience now automatically makes the association with the deadly pandemic that the artist never intended. Yet the creator had something quite different in mind as the renunciation of the depiction of people was intended to serve the focus on forms and structures. Often, however, it is not the motif at all that is the focus of Boris Becker’s work: In his painting series Fakes, it is the stories behind the image that constitute the fascination for the artist. Even drugs are sometimes used for this – even if only as a technical aid, such as a picture dissolved in cocaine, or a parrot modeled out of cocaine paste. Then the supposed motif becomes a distraction and is meant to mislead the viewer.
Boris Becker lives and works in Cologne, his hometown and city of birth.
Boris Becker - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz: