The Collection: Max Bill

The painting 'verdichtung zu caput mortuum' (distillation to caput mortuum) is one of a series of variations, with different expressive qualities deriving from the combination of colours used in each. The series was started in 1964. All the pictures are placed on the diagonal - Bill sometimes called them "pointed pictures".

This unusual external format feature alone expresses instability and tension, compelling the eye to move around. In 'verdichtung zu caput mortuum' the area in the centre is coloured a dull reddish-brown, or caput mortuum - the term applied to a residue after distillation or sublimation in alchemy. Here it acquires a special quality from the external isosceles triangles and bands of colour, and becomes a surface against which the yellow-red and bluish-purple colour chords can resonate as they interact with the reddish-brown.

The "unambiguous concision" of the colour forms gives them an inner depth and stability that contrast with the instability of the pictorial form. The dead, square nucleus in the earth-colour caput mortuum gains a life of its own.

Background

Max Bill, a member of the Swiss 'Zurich Concrete' group, was an architect, painter, sculptor, politician, educationalist, writer, in short, a 'universal creator'. He analysed the principles of Concrete Art and sharpened Theo van Doesberg's definition as follows:

"we call those works of art concrete that came into being on the basis of their inherent resources and rules - without external borrowing from natural phenomena, without transforming those phenomena, in other words: not by abstraction. concrete art is independent in its characteristic features. it is the expression of the human spirit, intended for the human spirit, and it should have the sharpness, the clarity and the perfection that must be expected from the human spirit. concrete painting and sculpture imply creating something that is open to visual perception. their creative resources are colours, space, light and movement … concrete art is ultimately the pure expression of harmonious measure and law. it orders systems and uses artistic resources to give life to these orders … it strives for universality and yet it cultivates uniqueness. it suppresses things individualistic in favour of the individual." Bill also requires that art should find a mathematical mode of thought to guarantee that the creative principles can be controlled. In the mean time he sees this as only one of the possible methods, "a useful aid, through which ideas can acquire visible form."

Biographical details

1908 Born in Winterthur, died 1994 in Berlin. ·
1924-27 Kunsgewerbeschule Zürich, apprenticed as a silversmith.
1927-29 Studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau, under teachers including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer.
From 1930 back in Zurich.
1932 Member of 'abstraction-création'. ·
1950 Co-founder of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, plans the curriculum and the buildings, first rector. ·
1956 Resigns from his posts in the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm. ·
1967-71 Member of the Swiss National Council. ·
1967-74 Professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, chair of environmental design. ·
1972 Associate, from 1976 full, member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. ·
1973 Associate member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Science, Literature and Fine Art, Brussels.

German

	Profile and Development Contact	Jeff Koons Andy Warhol Walter de Maria
	Selected Works	Max Bill
Top	Max Bill verdichtung zu caput mortuum 1972 / 73 Oil on canvas; 100 x 100 cm, diagonal 141 cm The painting 'verdichtung zu caput mortuum' (distillation to caput mortuum) is one of a series of variations, with different expressive qualities deriving from the combination of colours used in each. The series was started in 1964. All the pictures are placed on the diagonal - Bill sometimes called them "pointed pictures". This unusual external format feature alone expresses instability and tension, compelling the eye to move around. In 'verdichtung zu caput mortuum' the area in the centre is coloured a dull reddish-brown, or caput mortuum - the term applied to a residue after distillation or sublimation in alchemy. Here it acquires a special quality from the external isosceles triangles and bands of colour, and becomes a surface against which the yellow-red and bluish-purple colour chords can resonate as they interact with the reddish-brown. The "unambiguous concision" of the colour forms gives them an inner depth and stability that contrast with the instability of the pictorial form. The dead, square nucleus in the earth-colour caput mortuum gains a life of its own. Background Max Bill, a member of the Swiss 'Zurich Concrete' group, was an architect, painter, sculptor, politician, educationalist, writer, in short, a 'universal creator'. He analysed the principles of Concrete Art and sharpened Theo van Doesberg's definition as follows: "we call those works of art concrete that came into being on the basis of their inherent resources and rules - without external borrowing from natural phenomena, without transforming those phenomena, in other words: not by abstraction. concrete art is independent in its characteristic features. it is the expression of the human spirit, intended for the human spirit, and it should have the sharpness, the clarity and the perfection that must be expected from the human spirit. concrete painting and sculpture imply creating something that is open to visual perception. their creative resources are colours, space, light and movement … concrete art is ultimately the pure expression of harmonious measure and law. it orders systems and uses artistic resources to give life to these orders … it strives for universality and yet it cultivates uniqueness. it suppresses things individualistic in favour of the individual." Bill also requires that art should find a mathematical mode of thought to guarantee that the creative principles can be controlled. In the mean time he sees this as only one of the possible methods, "a useful aid, through which ideas can acquire visible form." Biographical details 1908 Born in Winterthur, died 1994 in Berlin. · 1924-27 Kunsgewerbeschule Zürich, apprenticed as a silversmith. 1927-29 Studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau, under teachers including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer. From 1930 back in Zurich. 1932 Member of 'abstraction-création'. · 1950 Co-founder of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, plans the curriculum and the buildings, first rector. · 1956 Resigns from his posts in the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm. · 1967-71 Member of the Swiss National Council. · 1967-74 Professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, chair of environmental design. · 1972 Associate, from 1976 full, member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. · 1973 Associate member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Science, Literature and Fine Art, Brussels.