Bill, Max

Description:

Winterthur, 1908 - Berlin, 1994
48 x 87,5 x 58 cm, Höhe mit Sockel und Säule: 166 cm
"Bewegter Ring", 1977. Brass, gilded, on a white marble column with Plexiglas base. Signed and dated in incision on the part inserted into the marble column.
Galerie Denise René Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf.
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 1984.
Max Bill - a Bauhaus student in Dessau under Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee - is among the most important artists, architects, and theorists of Concrete Art. His work unites mathematical precision with sensuous clarity, making him one of the most consistent designers of the 20th century.
The sculpture "Bewegter Ring" (1977) exemplifies Bill’s understanding of art as visually experienceable thought. Formed from gilded brass, the ring describes a closed, dynamic motion generated by the rotation and interlacing of its planes. From a distance the form appears simple, almost elemental; up close it reveals a complex spatial structure that offers new constellations with each shift of viewpoint.
A clear, geometrically derived vocabulary here meets an almost organic elegance. Bill uses the reflective gold surface to dematerialize the work - light and motion become integral elements of the sculpture. In concert with the strictly vertical marble column, the "Bewegter Ring" unfolds an almost architectural presence.
The ring motif was central for Max Bill: it symbolizes infinity, the unity of continuity and change. In the "Bewegung" ("movement") of the ring this thought condenses into a tangible metaphor for the dialectic of order and dynamism, closure and openness.
Bill’s three-dimensional works are icons of Concrete Art, closely linked to his theoretical writings and his role shaping the Zurich Concretes and the Ulm School of Design, which he co-founded. "Bewegter Ring" is a mature example of his late work, pairing intellectual rigor with playful, sensuously graspable lightness.