MA-g
The Museum of Avant-garde

Max Bill

Switzerland (1908—1994)
Trained as silversmith in Zürich, Max Bill studied at Dessau Bauhaus under Albers, Kandinsky and Klee before returning to Zürich working as an architect, painter, graphic designer and product designer. In 1937 he was a major member of the Allianz group of Swiss artists. He joined Abstraction-Création group in Paris and formulated the Principles of Concrete Art, continuing and developing the ideas of van Doesburg. In 1944 he founded the journal Abstrakt konkret and presented it in an exhibition in Basel. Since then Bill took on teaching roles in Zürich, Ulm, Lausanne, Hamburg and Dusseldorf, Florence and Berlin. He also participated in the Kassel documenta in 1959 and 1964. His theoretical publications and his work made him one of his leading figures emerging from Bauhaus students and his legacy is inevitably instrumental in the development of Modern Concrete Art and art in post-war scene.