Max Bill

MAX BILL (Switzerland, 1908 - Germany, 1994).
"Geometric composition", 1979.
Silkscreen, issue 42/66.
Editions Club Eude 99.
Signed, dated and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 65 x 50 cm (paper); 77.5 x 62 cm (frame).

Painter, sculptor, architect and graphic, typographic and industrial designer, Max Bill began his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, where he studied goldsmithing and was influenced by Dadaism and Cubism. Between 1927 and 1929 he completed his training studying art at the Bauhaus in Dessau, and there he approached the functionalism of design by the hand of Kandinsky, Klee and Schlemmer. After finishing his studies he settled in Zurich, and in 1930 he created his own architecture and graphic design studio, dedicating himself in parallel to painting. In 1931 he adopted Theo van Doesburg's theory of concrete art, according to which it is possible to achieve universality through clarity. The following year he began his sculptural activity, joining the Abstraction-Création (until 1937) and Allianz groups, as well as joining the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne and the UNion des Artistes Modernes in Paris. In 1944 he expanded his activity to industrial design, within a rationalist style. In 1951 he founded the HfG school in Ulm, of which he became the first rector. Throughout his career he received important awards, such as the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale in 1951 and the First International Prize at the São Paulo Biennial in the same year, as well as being named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. He was also awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He is currently represented at the MoMA in New York, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, the Fine Arts Museum in Bilbao, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Daimler Chrysler Collection in Berlin and many other collections, both public and private.