Max Bill, from the Bauhaus to industrial design
26/04/2015.
The master's vision
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Max Bill. Architect, painter, sculptor or " builder in the space ", theoretical, teacher, designer and sometimes politician.
Max Bill's student card of the Max Bill's student card of the Bauhaus 1927-1928. Image from the documentary film "Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass" directed by Erich Schmid.Bauhaus 1927-1928. Image from the documentary film "Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass" directed by Erich Schmid.Click above to see larger image.
Max Bill installing the first "Kontinuität" sculpture, 1947. Image from the documentary film "Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass" directed by Erich Schmid.
Max Bill, end of the 1940s. Image from the documentary film "Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass" directed by Erich Schmid.
Max Bill with the model of the Swiss pavilion in Venice 1951. Image from the documentary film "Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass" directed by Erich Schmid.
Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung, HfG) by Max Bill, Germany, 1955. Photography © Hans G. Conrad.
Inge Scholl, Walter Gropius, and Max Bill at the inauguration of the Design College Ulm 1955. Image from the documentary film "Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass" directed by Erich Schmid.
"Patria" typwriter, design from 1944.
Junghans wall clock, Max Bill's design, 1957.
Junghans kitchen clock, 1957. Photography via Wikipedia by Christos Vittoratos.
Original Junghans clocks designed by Max Bill. Kitchen clocks, wall clock, table clock.
Max Bill: Ladies quartz watch (1,2) and Automatic watch (3) by Junghans.
Max Bill, 1949.
Max Bill, Weißes Zentrum / White Center (1972).
Max Bill examining the seats for the Cinevox cinema in Neuhausen. Zurich, 1968. Exhibition of the centenary of Max Bill's birth at the Winterthur Museum of Commerce.
Swiss Pavilion in Paris, 1937 by Max Bill.
Max Bill has been one of the most complete and versatile artists of our time. Aknowledged as a universal genius, worked as an architect, painter, sculptor, designer, teacher and politician among other things.
He was born in 1908 in Winterthur, a city near Zurich, where he would go to study silversmithing at the School of Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) before beginning his studies in 1927 at the Bauhaus, where characters such as Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, László Moholy-Nagy and Walter Gropius were lecturing. Bill would remain two years in Dessau, during that time he assimilated the teachings of the school, and stablished the outlines of his work.
After finishing his studies he moved to Zumikon, in the canton of Zurich and was part of several art associations such as Abstraction-Creation, in which, along with other abstract artists, brought up an aesthetic debate against Surrealism; Allianz, following the trends of concrete art, defined in 1930 by Theo van Doesburg, with a greater emphasis on the use of color than the contemporary constructivists; or the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) in 1938.
During the 50s he the design for the School of Design in Ulm (Hochschule für Gestaltung - HfG), of which he was rector and professor for three years while he was organizing exhibitions, such as "Die Gute Form", designing the Swiss pavilion for the Milan Triennale, or working as a designer. Among his most recognized designs are those made for the firm Junghans. A set of kitchen clocks, wall clocks and watches, which have remained almost unchanged until today and are characterized by the simple and accurate representation of time.
As James Wood said, in the catalog for the exhibition dedicated to Max Bill in 1974, "To Deal with Max Bill Solely as a painter, sculptor and graphic artist is to make a distinction which he never made in his work: the distinction between Fine Arts and the other areas if his activity".
Max Bill died in 1994, in Berlin, leaving as legacy such a wide collection that an attempt to cover it is almost impossible. For anyone interested in finding out more, in 2008 came the documentary film "Max Bill, The Master's Vision" (Max Bill, das absolute Augenmass) directed by Erich Schmid, exploring the artist's life, swinging between art and politics.
