Constructive Clarity

Angela Thomas, art historian and Max Bill's widow, offers intimate insight into the peak years of the Swiss polymath's career.

Constructive Clarity: Max Bill and His Time, 1940-1952, the second installment of art historian Angela Thomas's multivolume biography, continues her meticulous exploration of the life and work of the influential artist. Max Bill was undoubtedly one of the most versatile artists of the twentieth century—a designer, painter, sculptor, architect, graphic designer, typographer, writer, curator, teacher, and politician—who influenced generations of artists.

Picking up where the first volume left off, Thomas turns her attention to Bill's life during World War II, exploring the ground-breaking artistic and intellectual networks to which Bill belonged: from his time at the Bauhaus in Dessau to his connections with the Parisian avant-garde and his lifelong friendship with Georges Vantongerloo. His importance as a writer, publisher, and exhibition organiser comes to the fore in this volume, as does his crucial influence on the development of Concrete art in South America and his active interest in urban planning and postwar reconstruction.

In a lively cadence that speaks to Thomas's intimate knowledge of the artist, Constructive Clarity weaves together a trove of correspondence, conversations, and numerous unpublished sources to guide readers through Bill's life, shedding new light on the artistic, political, and personal contexts in which he worked.