Max Bill, Original Screenprint, Signed + Limited

About This Piece

Max Bill

Winterthur 1908 - 1994 Berlin

Komposition, 1988

Silkscreen

Bottom right signed and dated (19)88

Bottom left limited: 31/200

Sheet size: 70 x 55 cm

Good original condition, 2 small stains on the left above the image (see photos)

Authenticity is confirmed in writing.

Max Bill is considered the main representative and important theorist of Concrete Art in general and the "Zurich School of Concrete Art" in particular. His geometric-mathematical, non-objective art was significantly influenced by the universal ideas of the Bauhaus: After studying at the Zurich School of Applied Arts, to which he was to return once again in 1944/45, now as a teacher, Max Bill, who was born in Winterthur in 1908, studied in Dessau in 1927/28 under Albers, Kandinsky, Klee, Moholy-Nagy and Schlemmer. This stay had a stylistically formative effect on Max Bill's diverse oeuvre. The influence of the Bauhaus can also be seen particularly clearly in the co-founding and construction of the Ulm School of Design (HfG) in the early 1950s, of which Max Bill was also the first rector until he moved back to Zurich in 1957.
In addition to the Bauhaus, Max Bill's preoccupation with Theo van Doesburg's thoughts on Concrete Art acted as a pacemaker in his development. Both artists were also members of the association "Abstraction-Création" (Max Bill from 1932 to 1936), in the 1930s an important platform for geometric abstraction and concrete art. The artists' association "allianz" led by Leo Leuppi, which Max Bill joined in 1937, also pursued comparable goals.
Continuing van Doesburg's ideas, Max Bill defined Concrete Art in 1936 as an art form that was "in its ultimate consequence the pure expression of harmonious measure and law," not created by abstraction of reality, but out of itself. Its universal means of representation are color, space, movement, and light. Max Bill fixed this idea in effective and far-reaching theoretical texts and put it comprehensively into practice: Max Bill worked as a painter and graphic artist, as a gifted sculptor (single-surface, column and sphere sculptures) and architect (for example HfG Ulm or "Kino Cinévox" in Neuhausen, 1957), as a product designer (clocks for Junghans, "Ulmer Hocker"), as a typographer and publicist.
Max Bill's works in all genres are ideas of a new, more coherent interplay: compositions based on traditional basic forms, but subjected to a new, variable order. This approach is exemplified in the "Quinze variations sur un même thème" (1935-1938), a lithographic portfolio with 16 geometric variations.
An essential basis of Max Bill's artistic concept was mathematics: in "Die mathematische Denkweise in der Kunst unserer Zeit" (The Mathematical Way of Thinking in the Art of Our Time), an essay from 1949, Max Bill builds on ideas of Georges Vantongerloo and deals with the idea of letting art arise from mathematical concepts of thought. The sculptural concept "The Infinite Loop," based on a Möbius strip and implemented in multiple variations over decades, exemplifies this mathematical reference.
Max Bill left his mark on Concrete Art both before and after the Second World War long ago, not only in Switzerland but also internationally. The appreciation of his work is shown, for example, by his appointment to the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, where Max Bill lectured as a visiting professor for environmental design from 1967 to 1974; in addition, almost innumerable honors and exhibitions testify to Max Bill's exposed position in the history of modern art. Max Bill died in Berlin in 1994.

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Period	1980 to 1989
Year	1988
Production Period	1980 to 1989
Country of Manufacture	Switzerland
Identifying Marks	This piece has an attribution mark
Style	Bauhaus
Detailed Condition	Very Good — This vintage/antique item has no defects, but it may show slight traces of use.
Restoration and Damage Details	Light wear consistent with age and use
Product Code	QFT-1417433
Materials	Screen print
Color	Multicolored
Depth	1 cm 0.0 inch
Height	70 cm 27.6 inch
Diameter	21.7 inch
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About the Creator

Max Bill

Swiss architect, graphic designer, painter, and industrial designer Max Bill (1908-1994) is known for being the most-successful student of the Bauhaus in Dessau and the co-founder the Ulm School of Design. His influential designs from the 1950s onwards reflect the abstraction-driven Concrete Art movement of the European postwar era.

Between 1924 and 1927, Bill apprenticed as a silversmith before attending the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1929. During this time, he was instructed by many influential artists, including Josef Albers (1888-1976), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Paul Klee (1879-1940), and Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943). Upon graduating, Bill relocated to Zurich, where he worked as an architect, painter, and graphic artist, among other things.

In 1932, Bill designed and built his own house and studio in Zurich. He became a member of the Abstraction-Création artist association in Paris, holding his first exhibition at the group’s gallery in 1933. There he met and befriended artists Hans Arp (1886-1966), Auguste Herbin (1882-1960), and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). In 1936, he formulated the principles of Concrete Art from the ideas published in Manifesto of Concrete Art (1930) by Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931). From the late 1930s onwards, Bill was a member of Allianz, a Swiss artists group for Concrete Art.

With abstraction as its main expressiion, Concrete Art embodies cerebral thoughts in a tangible form, free from observed reality. Bill’s iconic designs created in this style include the Tripod Chair (1949); Sun Lamp (1951); the radically interchangeable Ulm Stool (1954, in collaboration with Hans Gugelot); the 32/0389 Wall Clock (1957); and a series of wristwatches (1961) for Junghans. He also created many posters and paintings, such as Endless Ribbon, Version IV (1961-2), Rotation Around Expanding White (1971-78); and Continuity, Colossus of Frankfurt (1986).

In 1953, along with Inge Scholl (1917-1998) and Otl Aicher (1922-1991), Bill founded the Ulm School of Design in Ulm, Germany. Originally based upon the Bauhaus tradition, the school developed a style all its own, integrating art and science—including semiotics—into its design curriculum. Bill was the head of the architecture and product design departments throughout the 1950s. Though the school closed in 1968, many famous design luminaries were associated with it, including Josef Albers, Johannes Itten (1988-1967), Tomas Maldonado (b.1922), Peter Seitz (b.1931), and Walter Zeischegg (1917-1983).

Bill lectured around the world and published many articles and books on art, architecture, and design. Notably, from 1967 to 1971, he served as a member of the Swiss Parliament. Bill’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Guggenheim in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Florence, and the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, among others.

Bill passed away at the age of 85 in Berlin. For more insight into Bill’s fascinating and prolific design career, check out the 2008 documentary film, Max Bill—The Master’s Vision.