Max Bill – Apprenticeship as silversmith, studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau
Max Bill was born on 22 December 1908 in Winterthur. In 1924, he began an apprenticeship as a silversmith in Zurich at the decorative arts school. Whilst still studying at the young age of 17, his early work attracted so much attention that he was invited to Paris to the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, mediated by Sophie Taeuber-Arp. There Max Bill had the welcome opportunity to study not only the art of his fellow countryman Le Corbusier, but also that of Josef Hoffmann and Konstantin Stepanowitsch Melnikow, which made a great impression on him. However, after turning up for lessons after Shrove Tuesday in make-up, he was expelled from the school without a diploma, which led him to the Bauhaus in Dessau where he met Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Josef Albers. His years at the Bauhaus left a strong mark on Max Bill and influenced his future path. In fact, he made a significant contribution to ensuring the endurance of the Bauhaus idea, not least with the later founding of the Ulm School of Design.
Pioneer of abstract art, teacher in Zurich and Ulm
In 1929, Max Bill returned to his Swiss homeland and worked in practice and theory as an architect and by 1932 enjoyed success as a sculptor, painter, and graphic artist. That same year he joined the artist movement Abstraction-Création, founded the previous year by the Belgian painter Georges Vantongerloo in Paris in order to create a forum for abstract art. Bill remained faithful to the group until its dissolution, participating in exhibitions with significant artists such as Jean Arp and Piet Mondrian. In 1938, Max Bill joined the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), to which architect colleagues such as Alvar Aalton and Walter Gropius also belonged. As a publicist he founded the Allianz publishing house in 1941 and also wrote numerous books during his career as an artist. After teaching for a time at the Zurich School of Applied Arts, he was significantly involved in the founding of the Ulm Academy of Design, designed its school building, and served as its first rector from 1953 to 1956.
Influential pioneer of modern design art
Max Bill brought old Bauhaus companions to Ulm, gathering illustrious names such as Josef Albers, Johannes Itten and Walter Peterhans around him and, with his lectures, laid the foundation for the modern profession of designer as it is known today. He was politically active against fascism, rearmament, and the Vietnam War, and was a follower of Silvio Gesell and his theory of free enterprise. He had his only child, the painter and architect Jakob Bill with his first wife, the photographer and cellist Binia Spoerri, and his second wife, the art historian Angela Thomas, has established a foundation to care for his estate. Max Bill was awarded a great number of distinctions for his art including the Praemium Imperiale of Tenno in Tokyo and many public squares and streets have been named after him. He participated in documenta in Kassel three times and exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Max Bill died on 9 December 1994 in Berlin.
Max Bill - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
