Max Bill (1908 – 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer, and graphic designer.
After an apprenticeship as a silversmith from 1924–1927, Bill took up studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau under many teachers including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer from 1927 to 1929, after which he moved to Zurich.
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 a special authority. As an industrial designer, his work is characterized by a clarity of design and precise proportions. Examples are the elegant clocks and watches designed for Junghans, 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, 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 that 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. Thus Bill is not a rationalist – as is typically thought – but rather a phenomenologist. One who understands embodiment as the ultimate expression of concrete art. In this way, he is not so much extending as re-interpreting the Bauhaus theory. Yet curiously Bill's critical interpreters have not really grasped this fundamental issue.
He continued to produce architectural designs, such as those for a museum of contemporary art (1981) in Florence and for the Bauhaus Archive (1987) in Berlin. In 1982 he also entered a competition for an addition to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, built to a design by Mies van der Rohe. Pavillon-Skulptur (1979–83), a large granite sculpture, was installed adjacent to the Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich 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.
In 1944, Bill became a professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. In 1953 he founded the Ulm School of Design in Ulm, Germany, a design school initially created in the tradition of the Bauhaus and which later developed a new design education approach integrating art and science. The school was notable for its inclusion of semiotics as a field of study. The school closed in 1968. Faculty and students included Tomás Maldonado, Otl Aicher, Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, John Lottes, Walter Zeischegg, and Peter Seitz.
Bill was a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg 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. In 1976 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts.
Bill executed many public sculptures in Europe and exhibited extensively in galleries and museums, including a retrospective at the Kunsthaus Zürich 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 in Buffalo and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1974, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 1988.
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. He strongly influenced Brazilian artists like Franz Weissmann.
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.
© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Max Bill or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
After an apprenticeship as a silversmith from 1924–1927, Bill took up studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau under many teachers including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer from 1927 to 1929, after which he moved to Zurich.
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 a special authority. As an industrial designer, his work is characterized by a clarity of design and precise proportions. Examples are the elegant clocks and watches designed for Junghans, 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, 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 that 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. Thus Bill is not a rationalist – as is typically thought – but rather a phenomenologist. One who understands embodiment as the ultimate expression of concrete art. In this way, he is not so much extending as re-interpreting the Bauhaus theory. Yet curiously Bill's critical interpreters have not really grasped this fundamental issue.
He continued to produce architectural designs, such as those for a museum of contemporary art (1981) in Florence and for the Bauhaus Archive (1987) in Berlin. In 1982 he also entered a competition for an addition to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, built to a design by Mies van der Rohe. Pavillon-Skulptur (1979–83), a large granite sculpture, was installed adjacent to the Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich 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.
In 1944, Bill became a professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. In 1953 he founded the Ulm School of Design in Ulm, Germany, a design school initially created in the tradition of the Bauhaus and which later developed a new design education approach integrating art and science. The school was notable for its inclusion of semiotics as a field of study. The school closed in 1968. Faculty and students included Tomás Maldonado, Otl Aicher, Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, John Lottes, Walter Zeischegg, and Peter Seitz.
Bill was a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg 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. In 1976 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts.
Bill executed many public sculptures in Europe and exhibited extensively in galleries and museums, including a retrospective at the Kunsthaus Zürich 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 in Buffalo and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1974, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 1988.
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. He strongly influenced Brazilian artists like Franz Weissmann.
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.
© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Max Bill or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Mr. Max Bill |
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| konstruktion 1937 |
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| konstruktion 1937 |
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| Konstruktion aus drei Quadratgrössen (Denkmal für Pythagoras) 1939-41 |
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| Endless Ribbon from a Ring. 1947-49 |
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| Unendliche schlaufe 1952 |
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| Konstruktion aus einem Kreisring (Construction from a ring) 1959-66 |
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| Unendliche Schleife 1960 |
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| Unit Of Three Equal Volumes 1961 |
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| Femme Debout 1963 |
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| Construction from 2 Rings 1965 |
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| Familie von 5 halben Kugeln (halbe Kugel Nr. 1-5), 1965-66 |
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| Familie von fünf halben Kugeln (Family of Five Half Balls), 1966 |
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| Säule mit 3-6-eckigen Querschnitten (Column with 3-6 angular cross sections), 1966 |
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| Rhythm in Space 1967 |
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| Pavillon-Skulptur (Pavilion Sculpture) 1983, Zürich |
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| Continuity 1986 |
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| Bildsäulen-Dreiergruppe (Picture column tripartite group) 1989, Stuttgart |
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| Pavillon 1989 |
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| Endlose Treppe (Endless Stairs) 1991, Ludwigshafen |
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| Pyramide in Form Einer Achterkugel 1994 |
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| konstruktion aus drei gleichen kreisscheiben (version III), 1994 |
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| Conquistador 2012 |
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| Expansion in Four Directions 1961-62 |
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| Combillation 1970 |
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| Olympic Square - Olympic Games 1972 |
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| untitled 1973 |
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| Quinze variations sur un même thème 1930 |
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| Wechlin-Tissot & Co, Zürich, Artz: und Spitalbedarf 1930s |
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| Helen Daxelhofer + Dr. Alfred Schmidt 1933 |
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| Tripod Chair 1949 |
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| Sun Lamp 1951 |
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| Wall Clock and timer 1956-57 |
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