An exhibition at the museum Haus Konstruktiv (The Foundation for Constructive and Concrete Art) on Max Bill, presented in various sections throughout all of ewz-Unterwerk Selnau, as well as in public spaces, to mark the occasion of Max Bill's 100th birthday.
Max Bill is seen internationally as one of the most prominent representatives of concrete art, and as one of its outstanding theorists. In numerous texts, he laid the foundation for our contemporary understanding of concrete art, refined the terminology, and discussed the relevance of this art of pure visual means.
After two years of intensive preparation, the museum Haus Konstruktiv is realising the exhibition "max bill 100", the most comprehensive exhibition project in the museum's history. For the first time, one exhibition is encompassing the entire ewz Unterwerk Selnau building, one of the most striking and attractive examples of Zurich's industrial architecture, in recognition of one of the most important artists of the 20th century. From Zurich, Max Bill's energy radiated out around the world, as artist and architect, as typographer and designer, as theorist and lecturer.
In this wide-ranging homage, subdivided into various sections, Haus Konstruktiv is dedicating itself exclusively to the artworks of Max Bill, and presenting an extraordinarily productive and creative intellect with a selection of over 120 works. In Haus Konstruktiv, and in the event hall of ewz-Unterwerk Selnau, the public can dive into the broad artistic cosmos of Max Bill, and can encounter key sculptures and objects, paintings and watercolours, drawings and sketches, which are also shown in the context of historically valuable original documents. Many of the works shown, and numerous documents, have either not been exhibited for decades, or have never been exhibited at all in Switzerland, or indeed the world.
The urban space
The exhibition "max bill 100" already begins in the middle of the Pavilion Sculpture by Max Bill in Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse. From there, an educational trail with posters and 10 stations (in cooperation with the Presidential Department of the City of Zurich) leads to Haus Konstruktiv. Margit Weinberg Staber - publicist, curator, and member of the board of trustees at the Foundation for Constructive and Concrete Art (the foundation which supports the museum) - designed this educational path, which focuses on Bill's approach to urban space. The large amount of background information, with quotes and reference examples, allows the public to become acquainted with Max Bill's major sculpture projects, which he realised in public spaces around the world.
The sculptures
We sought to answer the question as to the extent to which Bill's oeuvre still influences artists today. Which of his themes continue to be engaging and to take effect in our present day?
We invited the internationally renowned artist Olaf Nicolai (born 1962), who resides in Berlin, to address the sculptural work of Max Bill. For the event hall in ewz-Unterwerk Selnau (the hall is part of the exhibition up to and including 1 February), Nicolai designed a walk-through installation entitled "Sculpture Park Cabinet", in which important sculptures and objects by Max Bill are presented in a manner which has never been seen before. Nicolai transferred the formal structure of Bill's 1970 painting "system mit fünf vierfarbigen zentren" (system with five four-coloured centres) to three-dimensionality, and developed a walk-through module which also accommodates the spatial relationships of the event hall. At three different heights, the result is a sculpturally dense structure which invites the visitor to sit down, to linger, and to wander between the modules. In a dialogue with a selection of important documentary films about Max Bill (e.g. by Ernst Scheidegger), a formal-aesthetic and conceptually powerful, impressive space is thus created in the spectacular industrial hall of the ewz.
Max Bill's large-format paintings also exhibit immense power: selected examples of works from the years 1961 to 1987 reveal Bill's distinctive approach to form and colour.
Another important section of the exhibition is dedicated to the question of how an artist can achieve such unusualness, which makes him and his work so distinctive. How did Max Bill become this great artist, who claimed his place in the art history of the 20th century so irrevocably?
Haus Konstruktiv is exhibiting 60 works - oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints - from the years 1924 to 1931, during which period Bill studied, firstly at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich (Zurich School of Applied Arts), then at the Bauhaus in Dessau, before returning to Zurich. These magically playful, dynamically brisk works, many of which have never been exhibited before, underline Bill's intensive preoccupation with the art of that era. But also recourses to Paul Klee, the cubists, or expressionism, for example, reflect a curious, humorous and lively young Max Bill.
Bill's first retrospective
Here in Switzerland, Bill's international significance, his guiding influence on artists from all around the world, is still underestimated. From very early on, Bill's work met with an intense reception abroad and overseas. The last section of "max bill 100" is dedicated to this phenomenon, and constitutes a reconstruction of his first retrospective, which he realised in 1951 in Museu de Arte de São Paulo. The museum Haus Konstruktiv has been able to bring together almost all of the works which were exhibited back then, from private and public collections, so as to bring this significant exhibition back to life once more, with all of its facets. This includes the central work "dreiteilige einheit" (three-part unity) from 1947/48, with which Max Bill won the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the 1st Biennale in São Paulo in 1951, and which was purchased in 1952 by what was then the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM).
Bill's retrospective at that time, which he himself described as his most important exhibition, marked the start of a life-long relationship between Max Bill and Latin America. His works had a lasting influence on numerous artists, such as Alexandre Wollner, Mary Vieira and Almir Mavignier.
Original documents
This reconstructed exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive documentation room, which has the nature of a parlour, and includes exhibits which have never been presented before: letters, objects, Bill's original design for the exhibition architecture, and variations from his series of "quinze variations sur un même thème". When designing this exhibition, the exhibition architect Ulrich Zickler, who resides in Zurich and Stuttgart, drew on Bill's original exhibition architecture for inspiration, and transferred it to our present day.
In his work, Max Bill was always interested in developing condensed intellectual spaces. In his famous 1949 essay "die mathematische denkweise in der kunst unserer zeit" (mathematical thought in present-day art), Bill explained how art and mathematics intersect with one another: "unknown spaces, almost unimaginable axioms take on form; one thinks in spaces which were previously unimaginable, and this familiarisation expands one's perception of additional spaces which are perhaps still unknown today."
Jakob and Chantal Bill, as well as the "max, binia + jakob bill foundation", are the most important partners in the project "max bill 100", and have provided Haus Konstruktiv with not only an extraordinarily informative insight into Max Bill's oeuvre, and active support in the realisation of the whole project, but also the majority of the loans.
Exhibition concept "max bill 100": Dorothea Strauss, Director of Haus Konstruktiv. Educational trail concept and co-curator: Margit Weinberg Staber, member of the board of trustees at the Foundation of Constructive and Concrete Art. Event hall ewz-Unterwerk Selnau project (20/11/08-1/2/09): Olaf Nicolai, Berlin.
We also thank the main sponsors of the exhibition "max bill 100" for their generous financial support: Vontobel Foundation / ewz / Art Progressive Foundation / Artephila Foundation / Georg and Bertha Schwyzer-Winiker Foundation
Haus Konstruktiv is sponsored by the Zurich Group, the Canton Zurich, and Stadt Zürich/Kultur.
Haus Konstruktiv
Selnaustrasse 25
8001 Zurich
www.hauskonstruktiv.ch
info@hauskonstruktiv.ch
Phone: +41 44 217 70 80
Fax: +41 44 217 70 90
Exhibition
20 November 2008 - 22 March 2009
Online since 13 November 2008
Opening Hours:
Tues/Thu/Fri noon - 6 pm, Wed noon - 8 pm, Sat/Sun/Bank Holidays 11 am - 6 pm
