Ulm 1953 - 1968/Max Bill

During this week's lecture, Rhiannon talked about a different art school following on from the Bauhaus lecture last week. We learnt about the 'school of design' in Ulm - Hochschule fur Gestaltung. I found it really interesting hearing about what was important to the school and how it changed over the years, and subsequently the reasons for why it was shut down. I am going to research further Max Bill who was a significant figure during this period.

​Born in 1908, Max Bill was a Swiss artist and designer who specialised in combining maths and geometry into his art practise. As an ex student of the Bauhaus, he later co-founded the HfG in Ulm where he was the head through the 1950s. He specialised in architecture and product design during his time at HfG, however his work fell into many categories including painting, sculpture and graphic design. Max Bill later resigned from HfG due to conflict regarding how the school should progress. There was no doubt that he was an outstanding artist/designer, but the school needed to focus more on industrialisation and manufacturing to gain income, rather than the art aspects, and Bill struggled with this concept.

Although, Max Bill's teaching career didn't end here, he was later involved with other schools for example the State School for Fine Arts in Hamburg. He received many art awards throughout his career and died at the age of 85 in 1994 during a visit in Berlin. Today, he is probably most recognised for his wrist watches which are manufactured by the German brand Junghans.