Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

typeface designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

industrial designer Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...

and

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

Early life and education

Bill was born in

Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria), La ...

. After an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

as a

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

during 1924–1927, Bill took up studies at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

under many teachers including

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

and

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the w ...

from 1927 to 1929, after which he moved to Zurich.

Work

1955 Foto-HansGConrad HfGUlm Architekt-MaxBill

Art and design

After working on graphic designs for the few modern buildings being constructed, he built his first work, his own house and studio (1932–3) in Zurich-Höngg.Max Bill

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York. From 1937 onwards he was a prime mover behind the Allianz group of Swiss artists. Bill is widely considered the single most decisive influence on Swiss graphic design beginning in the 1950s with his theoretical writing and progressive work. His connection to the days of the Modern Movement gave him special authority. As an industrial designer, his work is characterized by a clarity of design and precise proportions.Krippendorf, K., ''The Semantic Turn'', (2005), New York: CRC Press. Examples are the elegant clocks and watches designed for

Junghans Junghans Uhren GmbH is a German watch and clock manufacturer. The company is located in the district of Rottweil, in a town called Schramberg, Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany. History On 15 April 1861 Erhard Junghans created the compan ...

, a long-term client. Among Bill's most notable product designs is the "''Ulmer Hocker''" of 1954, a stool that can also be used as a shelf element, a speaker's desk, a tablet or a side table. Although the stool was a creation of Bill and Ulm school designer

Hans Gugelot Hans Gugelot (1 April 1920 – 10 September 1965) was an Indonesian-born, German engineer and industrial designer known for his modernist consumer products. Life and work Johan Gugelot was born on 1 April 1920 in Makassar, Dutch East Indies t ...

, it is often called "''Bill Hocker''" because the first sketch on a cocktail napkin was Bill's work. As a designer and artist, Bill sought to create forms which visually represent the New Physics of the early 20th century. He sought to create objects so that the new science of form could be understood by the senses: that is as a

concrete art Concrete art was an art movement with a strong emphasis on geometrical abstraction. The term was first formulated by Theo van Doesburg and was then used by him in 1930 to define the difference between his vision of art and that of other abstract art ...

. Thus Bill is not a rationalist – as is typically thought – but rather a phenomenologist. One who understands embodiment as the ultimate expression of a concrete art. In this way he is not so much extending as re-interpreting Bauhaus theory. Yet curiously Bill's critical interpreters have not really grasped this fundamental issue. He made spare geometric paintings and spherical sculptures, some based on the Möbius strip, in stone, wood, metal and plaster.

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position. Early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied at ...

(December 14, 1994)
Max Bill, 85, Painter, Sculptor And Architect in Austere Style
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. His architectural work included an office building in Germany, a radio studio in Zurich, and a bridge in eastern Switzerland.Max Bill, 85; Controversial Swiss : Artist, Sculptor and Writer
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', December 14, 1994. He continued to produce architectural designs, such as those for a museum of contemporary art (1981) in Florence and for the

Bauhaus Archive The Bauhaus Archive (german: Bauhaus-Archiv) is a state archive and Museum of Design located in Berlin. It collects art pieces, items, documents and literature which relate to the Bauhaus School (1919–1933), and puts them on public disp ...

(1987) in Berlin. In 1982 he also entered a competition for an addition to the

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its ...

in Berlin, built to a design by

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

. ''Pavillon-Skulptur (1979–83)'', a large

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

sculpture, was installed adjacent to the

Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich Bahnhofstrasse is Zürich's main downtown street and one of the world's most expensive and exclusive shopping avenues. In 2011, a study named the ''Bahnhofstrasse'' the most expensive street for retail property in Europe, and the third most expens ...

in 1983. As is often the case with modern art in public places, the installation generated some controversy. '' Endlose Treppe'' (1991), a sculpture made of North American granite, was designed for the philosopher

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...

. In 1982 he was awarded the

Sir Misha Black Sir Misha Black (16 October 1910 – 11 October 1977) was a British-Azerbaijani architect and designer. In 1933 he founded with associates in London the organisation that became the Artists' International Association. In 1943, with Milner Gray ...

award and was added to the

College of Medallists The College of Medallists is an association of recipients of The Sir Misha Black Awards, The Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services in Design Education. Misha Black (1910–1977) was a pioneer of design in United Kingdom, Britain. The ...

Teaching

In 1944, Bill became a professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. In 1953, alongside Inge Aicher-Scholl and

Otl Aicher Otto "Otl" Aicher (; 13 May 1922 – 1 September 1991) was a German graphic designer and typographer. Aicher co-founded and taught at the influential Ulm School of Design. He is known for having led the design team of the 1972 Summer Olympics ...

, he founded the

Ulm School of Design The Ulm School of Design (german: Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm) was a college of design based in Ulm, Germany. It was founded in 1953 by Inge Aicher-Scholl, Otl Aicher and Max Bill, the latter being first rector of the school and a former stu ...

(German: ''Hochschule für Gestaltung – HfG Ulm'') in

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, a design school initially created in the tradition of the

and which later developed a new design education approach integrating art and science. The school was notable for its inclusion of

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

as a field of study. The school closed in 1968. Faculty and students included

Tomás Maldonado Tomás Maldonado (25 April 1922 – 26 November 2018) was an Argentine painter, designer and thinker, considered one of the main theorists of design theory of the legendary Ulm Model, a design philosophy developed during his tenure (1954–1967) ...

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, ...

Johannes Itten Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feining ...

, John Lottes, Walter Zeischegg, and

Peter Seitz Peter Seitz (born 1931) is a graphic designer, author, teacher and business owner who served as the first design director at The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), and helped establish the graphic design program at the Minneapolis College of ...

. Bill was a professor at the

Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg The ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg)'' is the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ''Hamburger Gewerbeschule''; later it became known as ''Landeskunstschule Hamburg''. The main build ...

and chair of Environmental Design from 1967 to 1974. In 1973 he became an associate member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Science, Literature and Fine Art in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. In 1976 he became a member of the

Berlin Academy of Arts The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

. In addition to his teaching, Bill wrote and lectured extensively on art, architecture and design, appearing at symposiums and design conferences around the world. In particular, he wrote books about

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

, and artistic theory.

Exhibitions

Bill executed many public sculptures in Europe and exhibited extensively in galleries and museums, including a retrospective at the

Kunsthaus Zürich The Kunsthaus Zürich is in terms of area the biggest art museum of Switzerland and houses one of the most important art collections in Switzerland, assembled over the years by the local art association called '. The collection spans from the Medi ...

in 1968–69. He had his first exhibition in the United States at the Staempfli Gallery in New York City in 1963 and was the subject of retrospectives at the

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

in Buffalo and the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

in 1974. He participated in

documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

s I (1955), II (1959), and III (1964). In 1993, he received the

Praemium Imperiale Prince Takamatsu The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugura ...

for sculpture, awarded by the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his positio ...

. Bill is credited with having been "the spark that lighted the fuse of Brazil's artistic revolution" and the country's "movement toward concrete art" with his 1951 retrospective at the

São Paulo Museum of Modern Art The São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, (Portuguese: Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, or MAM), is located in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo. Founded by Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho and Yolanda Penteado, and built in 1948, the museum is modelled on ...

. He strongly influenced Brazilian artists like

Franz Weissmann Franz Josef Weissmann (September 15, 1911 – July 18, 2005) was a Brazilian sculptor born in Austria, emigrating to Brazil while he was eleven years old. Geometric shapes, like cubes and squares, are strongly featured in his works. He was one ...

Private life

After a liaison with

Nusch Éluard Nusch Éluard (born Maria Benz; 21 June 1906 – 28 November 1946) was a French performer, model and surrealist artist. Born Maria Benz in Mulhouse (then part of the German Empire), she met Swiss architect and artist Max Bill in the Odeon Café ...

, Bill married the cellist and photographer Binia Mathilde Spoerri in January 1931. She died in 1988. From 1974 he was living together with art historian Angela Thomas; they married in 1991. Bill was also involved in politics. He was elected to the Zurich municipal council in 1961. From 1967 to 1971, he served as a member of the

Swiss National Council The National Council (german: Nationalrat; french: Conseil national; it, Consiglio nazionale; rm, Cussegl naziunal) is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the ...

. Bill died en route to a hospital after collapsing from a heart attack at

Berlin Tegel Airport Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Berlin-Tegel „Otto Lilienthal“) was the primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienth ...

. He was 85 and lived in Zumikon, a Zürich suburb. In 1996, Jakob Bill, the son of Max, founded the Swiss Max Bill Foundation (''max, binia + jakob bill stiftung'') and implemented the idea of his father. The purpose of the foundation is to collect and take care of the works in possession of the Bill family, as well as the promotion of scientific research.

Gallery

Literature

* Jakob Bill: ''Max Bill am Bauhaus.'' Benteli, Bern 2008, . * Max Bill: ''Funktion und Funktionalismus. Schriften 1945–1988.'' Benteli, Bern 2008, . * ''Max Bill, Retrospektive. Skulpturen Gemälde Graphik 1928–1987.'' (Texte Christoph Vitali, Eduard Hüttinger, Max Bill.) Katalog Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Zürich/Stuttgart 1987 . * Thomas Buchsteiner und Otto Lotze:''max bill, maler, bildhauer, architekt, designer.'' Ostfildern-Ruit 2005, . * Luciano Caramel, Angela Thomas: ''Max Bill''. Pinacoteca Communale Casa Rusca, Locarno / Fidia Edizione d'Arte, Lugano 1991, . * Roberto Fabbri: ''Max Bill in Italia. Lo spazio logico dell'architettura'', Bruno Mondadori Editore, Milano 2011, . * Roberto Fabbri: ''Max Bill. Espaces'', Infolio Éditions, Gollion – Paris, 2017, . * Gerd Fischer: ''Der Koloss von Frankfurt: Die „Kontinuität“ von Max Bill.'' In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, Heft 4/1999, S. 22–23. * Eduard Hüttinger: ''Max Bill''. abc Verlag, Zürich 1977, . * Eduard Hüttinger: ''Max Bill''. Edition Cantz, Stuttgart 1987 (erweiterte Ausgabe) * Gregor Nickel und Michael Rottmann: ''Mathematische Kunst: Max Bill in Stuttgart''. In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, Band 14, Heft 3/2006, S. 150–159. * Arturo Carlo Quintavalle: ''Max Bill''. Università Commune Provincia di Parma, Quaderni 38, 1977. * Thomas Reinke und Gordon Shrigley: ''Max Bill: HfG Ulm: Drawing and Redrawing: Atelierwohnungen, Studentenwohnturm.'' marmalade, 2006, . * Emil Schwarz: ''Im Wissen der Zeit oder Der Sinn, den die Schönheit erzeugt, Hommage à Max Bill'', ein dichterischer Nachvollzug mit dem Essay ''Wirklichkeit oder Realität''. NAP Verlag, Zürich 2010, . *

Werner Spies Werner Spies (born 1 April 1937 in Tübingen) is a German art historian, journalist and exhibition organizer. From 1997 to 2000, he was a director of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina in Vienn ...

: ''Kontinuität. Granit-Monolith von Max Bill''. Deutsche Bank, 1986, . * René Spitz: ''hfg ulm. der blick hinter den vordergrund. die politische geschichte der hochschule für gestaltung ulm 1953–1968''. Stuttgart/London 2002. . (Zur Geschichte der HfG Ulm von der Gründung 1953 bis zur Schließung 1968.) * Margit Staber: "Max Bill". Methuen, London 1964. (Art in Progress series) * Angela Thomas: ''Max Bill und seine Zeit''. 2 Bände. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich: **Band 1: ''Mit subversivem Glanz (1908–1939)'', 2008, . **Band 2: ''Nur kleine Geister halten Ordnung (1939–1994)'', 2012, . * Udo Weilacher: ''Kontinuität (Max Bill).'' In: Udo Weilacher: ''Visionäre Gärten. Die modernen Landschaften von Ernst Cramer.'' Basel/Berlin/Boston 2001, . * Da Silva Paiva, Rodrigo Otávio: Max Bill no Brasil, 2011, .

References

External links

"Max Bill – The Master's Vision", a film about Max Bill by Erich Schmid

Extense biography in bauhauskooperation.com

Lorenzelli Arte: Max Bill Biography

max bill georges vantongerloo stiftung

Max Bill: Exhibition in MARTa Herford Museum (Germany)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bill, Max 1908 births 1994 deaths People from Winterthur Alliance of Independents politicians Members of the National Council (Switzerland) Abstract painters Bauhaus alumni Freiwirtschaft Swiss graphic designers Design educators Swiss architects 20th-century Swiss male artists 20th-century Swiss painters 20th-century Swiss sculptors Swiss contemporary artists Swiss designers Swiss industrial designers Swiss typographers and type designers Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Serial art Zurich University of the Arts alumni Ulm School of Design faculty University of Fine Arts of Hamburg faculty Compasso d'Oro Award recipients