"Bill always said that he also went to the Bauhaus to find clarity. And that is a process. You don't just have clarity, you have to earn it."

For this brand-new episode, I travelled to Zumikon to visit Angela Thomas and Erich Schmid in their house - Haus Bill. This house, which looks somehow unremarkable from the outside but is amazingly light, open, and welcoming and on the inside, was built by the Swiss architect and designer Max Bill in 1967–68. His second wife and widow, Angela Thomas, lives there today with her husband, the filmmaker Erich Schmid, who made a film about Bill entitled “Max Bill – Das absolute Augenmaß/The master's vision”.

Max Bill established himself in art history as the architect and first director of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm (also known as HfG Ulm or in English the Ulm School of Design). And that is exactly the reason why I also interviewed the head of the HfG Ulm archive, Martin Mäntele, regarding all questions around the official successor of the Bauhaus. Because that is what Bill intended to do in Ulm – to continue the Bauhaus as if it had never been closed in 1933. And he had Walter Gropius’s blessing, too, and the financial support by the Americans.

LOOK OUT FOR 2 BONUS EPISODES with the original Interviews that will be published in the next 2 weeks!

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SHOW NOTES

bauhausfaces.com | @bauhausfacespodcast

HAUS BILL, ZUMIKON https://www.maxbill.ch/

ANGELA THOMAS
ERICH SCHMID

HFG ULM ARCHIVE https://www.hfg-ulm.de/

FILM
„Das absolute Augenmaß“ by Erich Schmid https://www.erichschmid.ch/page.php?2,3,4,6,0,

BOOKS ABOUT MAX BILL
Angela Thomas: A Subversive Gleam: Max Bill and His Time. 1908–1939, 2022
Angela Thomas: Von konstruktiver Klarheit. Max Bill und seine Zeit. 1940-1952, 2023

Jakob Bill: Max Bill am Bauhaus, 2008
Jakob Bill: Max Bill - Funktion und Funktionalismus: Schriften 1945-1988, 2008

ART BY MAX BILL
Hauser & Wirth https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/23340-max-bill/

TAKEHIKO MIZUTANI’S SCULPTURE FROM THE BAUHAUS VORKURS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbmU0xH7ehs
https://www.blindbild.com/berlin-berlinische-galerie-exhibition-original-bauhaus-september-2019/berlinische-galerie-bauhaus-mizutani/

NUSCH ÉLUARD
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusch_Éluard

ABSTRACTION–CRÉATION
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction-Création

ULM STOOL/ULMER HOCKER
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulmer_Hocker

JUNGHANS WATCH DESIGN
https://www.junghans.de/kollektionen/uhren/junghans-max-bill/?p=1

COVER PHOTO Still from the film „Max Bill - Das absolute Augenmass" by Erich Schmid

CHAPTER IMAGES
01 Still from the film „Max Bill - Das absolute Augenmass" by Erich Schmid

02 Max Bill as a 17-year-old in Paris, where his first works were exhibited at the legendary Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs, 1925 (Photo PD), Estate of Max Bill

03 Max Bill: Poster „Suchard Chocolat 1826–1926“, https://collections.mahn.ch/fr/notice/st-394-suchard-chocolat-1826-1926-873263e3-714e-4089-ad5e-5dd38b6a76d5

04 Max Bill: Katt Both and Hilde Rantzsch, 1927–28, Estate of Max Bill

05 Nusch Eluard Still from the film „Max Bill - Das absolute Augenmass" by Erich Schmid

06 Cover of „Abstraction-création: art non-figuratif“, No. 5, 1936, https://monoskop.org/Abstraction-création

07 Max Bill: Granite sculpture Continuity at the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, CC BY-SA 3.0, Photo by Frank Behnsen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20651441

08 Max Bills Typografie gegen den Faschismus,

09 Max Bill: Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Ulm / Ulm School of Design, Photo by Hans G. Conrad / René Spitz, 1955, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17713152

10 Max Bill: Pavilion Sculpture, Zurich 1983, Photo by Matt Mechtley, https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Pavillon-SkulpturMaxBill_02.jpg