Max Bill

combillation aus 30 gleichen elementen in 6 gruppen, 1986

Max Bill was a member of the circle of Zurich Concrete artists, alongside Camille Graeser, Verena Loewensberg and Richard Paul Lohse. Bill had studied at the Bauhaus under Schlemmer, Kandinsky and Klee. The essential feature of Max Bill’s entire œuvre is mathematically precise work with geometric elements of order. Two principles of his art are the creation of rhythm in an enclosed surface or shape, and instilling the static condition of rest with dynamism. The combillation theme in Bill’s oeuvre goes back to the sculpture called construction from 30 identical elements dating from 1938/39, and has been varied in many ways. The combillation with the Mercedes star in the centre, developed as a silhouette, was commissioned by the company for the former Mercedes-Benz Museum on the Untertürkheim factory site. At the center of the new museum, the floating staggering and interlinking of the elements respond to the flowing curves of the architecture. At the same time, the loosely grouped and connected elements can be read like an abstract text or sound.