Max Bill

Max Bill is regarded as the main representative and important theorist of Concrete Art in general and of the “Zurich School of Concrete Art” in particular. Painting dominates Max Bill’s varied work, beginning with landscapes and portraits until around 1931, when it acquires its true character with the consistent geometric-constructive abstraction. His geometric-mathematical, abstract art was significantly influenced by the universal ideas of the Bauhaus. In his works, Max Bill deals with Theo van Doesburg’s ideas of “concrete art” formulated around 1930: The means of design are colour, space, light and movement, the formation of which creates new realities without external reference to natural phenomena or their abstraction. Max Bill also worked as a graphic artist, sculptor, architect, product designer, typographer and publicist.

born 1908 in Winterthur, Switzerland
1924-1927 studied at the Zurich School of Applied Arts
1927-1928 studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau with Albers, Kandinsky, Klee, Moholy-Nagy and Schlemmer as teachers
1932-1936 member of the “Abstraction-Création” association for geometric abstraction and concrete art
1937 Joined the artists’ association “Allianz” led by Leo Leuppi, from which the “Zürcher Konkreten” were formed
1944-1945 teacher at the Zurich School of Applied Arts
1953 co-founder and first rector (until 1957) of the Ulm School of Design
1967-1974 guest professor for environmental design at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts
died in Berlin in 1994