A subversive gleam: Max Bill and his time 1908-1939

Abstract

Max Bill was a Swiss polymath bridging the worlds of design, architecture, art, publishing, advertising, and politics. This first part of an comprehensive monograph retraces Bill's biography from his childhood to his Bauhaus training, his return to Zurich, and on until the late 1930s. The reader discovers a young Bill characterized by commitment, clarity in thinking, a highly critical mind, and a growing network of artists. Part biography, part eulogy, part memoir, this publication proposes insights into the pre-World War II cultural milieu of a European community of artists, designers, and architects.