max bill & georges vantongerloo: crossover

‘crossover’ highlights the lasting achievements of Bill and Vantongerloo through an in-depth selection of paintings and sculptures, some of which are being shown in the United States for the first time since their major American traveling retrospectives in 1974-1975 and 1980-1981, respectively.

Dr. Angela Thomas, art historian and widow of the artist, retraces Max Bill’s biography, meticulously dissecting the artist’s journey through his exchanges with his family, teachers, and peers–and their individual respective life trajectories.

The exhibition’s title not only refers to the artists’ relationship with each other, but also to the prolific and numerous connections and exchanges they had within the American art scene, and their lasting impact on art movements like minimalism.

This documentary feature film was made by Erich Schmid in 2008 as a tribute to Max Bill on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. Max Bill studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau and was a precursor of concrete art, which served as a blueprint for his investigations in other creative fields such as architecture, typography, and design.

This film is available to view on the third floor of the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth NY 69th street.

Explore the exhibition in greater depth with the essay “Crossover Culture” written by Dr. Angela Thomas, President of the max bill georges vantongerloo foundation, investigating Max Bill’s and Georges Vantongerloo’s connections to the American art scene. This richly illustrated essay spans from the early 1930s to the early 1990s and also includes rare archival images.

Georges Vantongerloo, born in Antwerp, Belgium, was an artist, architect, and theorist who became a member of the De Stijl group. While living in Holland and working on architectural designs during the years of World War I, Vantongerloo became part of the circle of Piet Mondrian, Bart van der Leck, and Theo van Doesburg, who founded the magazine ‘De Stijl’ in 1917. In 1924 Vantongerloo published his pamphlet ‘L’Art et son avenir’ and in 1931 joined the Abstraction-Création group.

Max Bill was a great Swiss polymath: an artist, architect, industrial designer, graphic designer, and teacher. He attended the Bauhaus where he was taught by Josef Albers, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Schlemmer. Bill remained closely associated with the Bauhaus school and was a key figure in developing and propagating its principles, as a guest lecturer at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich and as a co-founder and first rector of the Ulm School of Design.

‘max bill & georges vantongerloo. crossover’ is on view now through 26 Mar 2022 at Hauser & Wirth New York, 69th street.