MAX BILL (1908-1994) DIE FARBE. 1944.
50x35 1/4 inches, 127x89 1/2 cm.
Condition A- / B+: minor wrinkles and creases at edges; wrinkles and creases in central color image; central color image printed on a separate sheet of paper and affixed to main poster, as issued. Three-sheets.
Bill was a key member of the Zurich Group, and he pursued strict visual discipline and absolute clarity in his work. For this exhibition on color ("In nature, art science and technology") Bill overlaps bands of primary colors. He shows how they work with each other, and how when they are mixed they become the secondary colors. However, at the center of these arches, the focal point where all the colors overlap, the paper remains white. The catalogue for the exhibition, for which Bill also designed the cover (curiously it is a different design than on the poster) has an introductory text written by Johannes Itten, a former Bauhaus professor. This poster was printed in the Museum, and as such is comprised of three separate sheets of paper, the image itself being one sheet affixed to two sheets that form the rest of the poster. This was because the printing presses in the museum were too small to print normal, Swiss-sized posters. rare Müller-Brockman 211.