MAX BILL
Inscribed to György Kepes
Max Bill and Max Bense
Max Bill and Max Bense: MAX BILL. London: Hanover Gallery, 1966. First edition. Text in English. Slim quarto. Glossy printed wrappers. 28 pp. Multiple paper stocks. 4 color and 4 black and white plates. INSCRIBED from Max Bill to György Kepes on title page. Wrappers lightly toned with mild handling wear, otherwise a nearly fine copy of a significant association copy.
4.25 x 6 perfect-bound catalog with 28 pages and 4 color and 4 black and white plates for the show at the Hanover Gallery from November 2 to December 22 1966. With an essay by Max Bense originally published in Art International [March 1963]. beautifully printed in Zürich by City-Druck AG.
“The difference between the design problems which have to be solved every day and works of painting and sculpture is merely one of degree, not one of principle.” — Max Bill
Max Bill achieved mastery in many areas: avant-garde architecture, the fine arts, product design, typography, journalism, research and teaching and even politics. He was a true 'uomo universale' who represented the concept of 'concrete art' by creating works 'by means of its intrinsic nature and rules', and a lifelong proponent of Die Gute Form (good design).
Max Bill (1908 - 1994) studied at the Bauhaus from 1927 to 1929 before returning to his native Switzerland and settling in Zurich. He worked in many mediums and attempted to unify them in his work. Bill is remembered primarily for his stone and metal sculptures which he deemed "Concrete Art." Bill was a prolific architect, designing his own house in Zurich among other buildings. He also co-founded and designed the College of Design in Ulm, where he was the head of the architecture and produce design departments from 1951 to 1957. From 1961 to 1964, he was the head architect of the Building and Design Sectors for the Swiss National Exhibit in Lausanne '64. He became professor at the State School for Fine Arts in Hamburg in 1967 and received awards, honors and an honorary degree. In 1968, received the Zurich Art Award and has been exhibiting in galleries and exhibition halls since 1928. His Constructivist sculptures for public squares as well as his paintings have become popular in America, Europe and Asia.
György Kepes (1906 - 2002) was a friend and collaborator of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Also of Hungarian descent, Kepes worked with Moholy first in Berlin and then in London before emigrating to the US in 1937. He was educated at the Budapest Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In his early career he gave up painting for filmmaking. This he felt was a better medium for artistically expressing his social beliefs.
From 1930 to 1937 he worked off and on with Moholy-Nagy and through him, first in Berlin and then in London, met Walter Gropius and the science writer J. J. Crowther. In 1937, he was invited by Moholy to run the Color and Light Department at the New Bauhaus and later at the Institute of Design in Chicago. He taught there until 1943. In 1944 he wrote his landmark book Language of Vision. This text was influential in articulating the Bauhaus principles as well as the Gestalt theories. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1946 to 1974 and in 1967 he established the Center for Advanced Studies. During his career he also designed for the Container Corporation of America and Fortune magazine as well as Atlantic Monthly and Little, Brown.