Max Bill | |
|---|---|
 Max Bill in 1970 | |
| Born | (1908-12-22)22 December 1908 Winterthur, Switzerland |
| Died | 9 December 1994(1994-12-09) (aged 85) Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation(s) | Architect Artist Painter Typeface designer Industrial designer Graphic designer |
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Bill was born inWinterthur. After anapprenticeship as asilversmith during 1924–1927, Bill took up studies at theBauhaus inDessau under many teachers includingWassily Kandinsky,Paul Klee andOskar Schlemmer from 1927 to 1929, after which he moved to Zurich.
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.[1] From 1937 onwards he was a prime mover behind theAllianz group of Swiss artists.[2]
Bill is widely considered the single most decisive influence on Swiss graphic design beginning in the 1950s with his theoretical writing and progressive work.[3] 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.[4] Examples are the elegant clocks and watches designed forJunghans, 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 designerHans 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 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 aconcrete 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.[4] He made spare geometric paintings and spherical sculptures, some based on theMöbius strip, in stone, wood, metal and plaster.[5][6] His architectural work included an office building in Germany, a radio studio in Zurich, and a bridge in eastern Switzerland.[7]
He continued to produce architectural designs, such as those for a museum of contemporary art (1981) in Florence and for theBauhaus Archive (1987) in Berlin. In 1982 he also entered a competition for an addition to theNeue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, built to a design byMies van der Rohe.[1]Pavillon-Skulptur (1979–83), a largegranite sculpture, was installed adjacent to theBahnhofstrasse, 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 philosopherErnst Bloch.
In 1982 he was awarded theSir Misha Black award and was added to theCollege of Medallists.[8]
In 1944, Bill became a professor at theKunstgewerbeschule Zürich. In 1953, alongsideInge Aicher-Scholl andOtl Aicher, he founded theUlm School of Design (German:Hochschule für Gestaltung – HfG Ulm) inUlm,Germany, a design school initially created in the tradition of theBauhaus and which later developed a new design education approach integrating art and science. The school was notable for its inclusion ofsemiotics as a field of study. The school closed in 1968. Faculty and students includedTomás Maldonado,Otl Aicher,Josef Albers,Johannes Itten, John Lottes, Walter Zeischegg, andPeter Seitz.
Bill was a professor at theHochschule 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 inBrussels. In 1976 he became a member of theBerlin Academy of Arts. 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 aboutLe Corbusier,Kandinsky,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and artistic theory.[7]
Bill executed many public sculptures in Europe and exhibited extensively in galleries and museums, including a retrospective at theKunsthaus 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 theAlbright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and theLos Angeles County Museum of Art in 1974. He participated indocumentas I (1955), II (1959), and III (1964). In 1993, he received thePraemium Imperiale for sculpture, awarded by theEmperor of Japan.[6]
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"[9] with his 1951 retrospective at theSão Paulo Museum of Modern Art. He strongly influenced Brazilian artists likeFranz Weissmann.[10]
After a liaison withNusch Éluard, Bill married the cellist and photographer Binia Mathilde Spoerri in January 1931.[11] 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.[7] From 1967 to 1971, he served as a member of theSwiss National Council.
Bill died en route to a hospital after collapsing from a heart attack atBerlin Tegel Airport. He was 85 and lived in Zumikon, a Zürich suburb.[6]In 1996, Jakob Bill, the son of Max, founded the Swiss Max Bill Foundation (max, binia + jakob bill stiftung[12]) 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.
Because Bill had not settled his estate, the legacy was divided equally between his son and his widow. The two heirs each independently set up a foundation.[13]
In 1997 Angela Thomas founded the Max Bill Georges Vantongerloo Foundation, which is based in the house and studio built by Max Bill in 1967/68 in Zumikon. The foundation aims to make representative parts of the work of the two artist friends Vantongerloo and Bill as well as Haus Bill Zumikon accessible to the public.[14][15]
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