Max Bill
| January 07, 2008

Max Bill, a member of the Swiss 'Zurich Concrete' group, was an architect, painter, sculptor, politician, educationalist, writer, in short, a 'universal creator'.

He analysed the principles of Concrete Art and sharpened Theo van Doesberg's definition as follows: "we call those works of art concrete that came into being on the basis of their inherent resources and rules - without external borrowing from natural phenomena, without transforming those phenomena, in other words: not by abstraction. concrete art is independent in its characteristic features. it is the expression of the human spirit, intended for the human spirit, and it should have the sharpness, the clarity and the perfection that must be expected from the human spirit. concrete painting and sculpture imply creating something that is open to visual perception. their creative resources are colours, space, light and movement … concrete art is ultimately the pure expression of harmonious measure and law. it orders systems and uses artistic resources to give life to these orders … it strives for universality and yet it cultivates uniqueness. it suppresses things individualistic in favour of the individual." Bill also requires that art should find a mathematical mode of thought to guarantee that the creative principles can be controlled. In the mean time he sees this as only one of the possible methods, "a useful aid, through which ideas can acquire visible form."



Max Bill – a product of the bauhaus generation, pupil of walter gropius and kindred spirit of le corbusier and mies van der rohe – was a virtuoso designer and creative artist, as his diverse activities as a painter, architect, sculptor, teacher and designer amply demonstrate. his work is characterised by a clarity of design and precise proportions which are unrivalled to this day.

The work of max bill was a continuous balancing act between free art and applied art, between severe, reduced forms and flowing natural ones, between philosophical thinking and practical application.

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