A Subversive Gleam: Max Bill and His Time. 1908–1939

Max Bill (1908–1994)—designer, artist, sculptor, and architect—took a stand on social and political topics with the same commitment that he brought to artistic and cultural issues. This first volume of an impressive sweep of a monograph guides the reader along the loosely spun thread of Bill’s biography—from his childhood and youth, through his time at the Bauhaus, his return to Zurich, and on through the late 1930s. Meticulously researched and adeptly highlighting historical, social, and personal connections in Bill’s life, this monograph invites the reader to discover an artistic and political pre–World War II milieu inhabited by artists such as Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy- Nagy, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Max Ernst, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Georges Vantongerloo, Ignazio Silone, Aline Valangin, and Le Corbusier.
Art historian Angela Thomas’s rare narrative gift breathes life into the history and stories of Bill’s early years, creating a web of connections with Bill at its center. This is a book to read straight through or to leaf backward and forward, savoring stories, episodes, artwork, and photographs from Bill’s artistic and personal life.