Design Anthology UK Issue 04

Page 178

PIONEER

Swiss precision

From art to watch design and typography, Max Bill might be the Bauhaus’ greatest polymath

RDB/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images

Words / Bertram James

A

1936, Bill distilled his ideas into a manifesto, Principles of Concrete Design, which went on to kickstart the Brazilian Neo-Concrete movement of the 1950s.

As well he might, for despite never graduating – he accidentally knocked his teeth out and the subsequent dental bills meant he couldn’t pay his tuition fees – Bill was a prominent student at the design school, respected by his contemporaries as a free-thinking iconoclast. He left the Bauhaus in 1929, moving back to Zurich in his native Switzerland. Day-to-day he worked as a graphic designer, but it was during this period he developed his exacting geometric style of art, exhibiting his works alongside Piet Mondrian and Georges Vantongerloo as part of the Paris-based Abstraction-Creation group. In

In the post-war period, Bill’s influence grew further. He founded the influential Ulm School of Design in 1953, which he envisioned as the Bauhaus reincarnated. Sadly, not everyone in the faculty agreed, and he stood down in 1956, though not before designing the brilliantly simple Ulm stool, which was produced and used by the students. He continued to move seamlessly between disciplines: the mathematical and emotionally mute nature of his ribbon-like sculptures prompted a spell as a corporate artist for various banks, and he also designed a series of arresting posters for the 1972 Munich Olympics. Bill died in 1994, felled by a heart attack in Berlin airport – an uncharacteristically public demise for a man whose quiet precision continues to define Swiss design.

rtist, architect, designer, typographer: the multiple talents of Max Bill (1908-1994) appeared as endless and inscrutable as one of his abstract sculptures, but outside of design circles he remains an almost unknown figure. And yet, in his peerless functionalist aesthetic, he realised the Bauhaus doctrine of beauty in the everyday.

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Articles inside

Profile Ninety Percent, the womenswear brand giving away most of its profits

6min
pages 172-177

Most wanted Clothing, accessories and tech that tell a story and defy the ordinary

2min
pages 166-171

Max Bill The Swiss former Bauhaus student whose talents crossed boundaries

2min
pages 178-180

Street smarts The end-of-terrace gets a modern twist in this new-build by 31/44 Architects

5min
pages 112-123

Museum, San Sebastián Sculptor Eduardo Chillida’s open-air gallery reopens after nine years

3min
pages 134-137

Gallery, Norway Bridge and building in one, The Twist is architect BIG’s latest showstopper

6min
pages 150-159

Poland Explore the graphic and subversive world of the Polish School of Posters

5min
pages 138-143

Urban retreat A quietly crafted development aimed at east London’s creative community

5min
pages 104-111

Diary Preview the coming months’ most compelling art and design shows

7min
pages 124-133

Profile Guise, the Stockholm practice behind a major new photographic gallery

5min
pages 160-165

Profile The art of Vivien Suter, inspired by her Guatemalan home, comes to the UK

4min
pages 144-149

No empty vessel Amsterdam-based artist Birgitta de Vos’ atmospheric home aboard a ship

6min
pages 80-91

A peaceful prospect Design studio Nune composes a calm hideaway in rural Connecticut

5min
pages 92-103

Points of perception Conjuring up an eerie definition of beauty to chronicle the five senses

1min
pages 32-39

Q&A Linde Freya Tangelder of experimental design studio Destroyers/Builders

6min
pages 40-45

Travelogue, Bogotá The high-altitude metropolis with a flourishing creative economy

7min
pages 52-59

Hotel openings Explore the world and stay in some of the best design-centric destinations

3min
pages 46-51

Read Delve into a selection of books on design, architecture and interiors

2min
pages 26-27

Restaurant, Manchester From the founders of Bistrotheque, a multifunctional place for a good time

3min
pages 28-31

Hotel, Somerset Find creature comforts at The Newt, a West Country vision of arcadia

6min
pages 60-67

Brighter future An art- and light-filled Ibizan villa that’s a lesson in laid-back living

5min
pages 68-79
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