Ulm School Stool by Max Bill for Zanotta, 1950s

Swiss architect, graphic designer, painter, and industrial designer Max Bill (1908-1994) is known for being the most-successful student of the Bauhaus in Dessau and the co-founder the Ulm School of Design. His influential designs from the 1950s onwards reflect the abstraction-driven Concrete Art movement of the European postwar era.

Between 1924 and 1927, Bill apprenticed as a silversmith before attending the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1929. During this time, he was instructed by many influential artists, including Josef Albers (1888-1976), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Paul Klee (1879-1940), and Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943). Upon graduating, Bill relocated to Zurich, where he worked as an architect, painter, and graphic artist, among other things.

In 1932, Bill designed and built his own house and studio in Zurich. He became a member of the Abstraction-Création artist association in Paris, holding his first exhibition at the group’s gallery in 1933. There he met and befriended artists Hans Arp (1886-1966), Auguste Herbin (1882-1960), and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). In 1936, he formulated the principles of Concrete Art from the ideas published in Manifesto of Concrete Art (1930) by Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931). From the late 1930s onwards, Bill was a member of Allianz, a Swiss artists group for Concrete Art.

With abstraction as its main expressiion, Concrete Art embodies cerebral thoughts in a tangible form, free from observed reality. Bill’s iconic designs created in this style include the Tripod Chair (1949); Sun Lamp (1951); the radically interchangeable Ulm Stool (1954, in collaboration with Hans Gugelot); the 32/0389 Wall Clock (1957); and a series of wristwatches (1961) for Junghans. He also created many posters and paintings, such as Endless Ribbon, Version IV (1961-2), Rotation Around Expanding White (1971-78); and Continuity, Colossus of Frankfurt (1986).

In 1953, along with Inge Scholl (1917-1998) and Otl Aicher (1922-1991), Bill founded the Ulm School of Design in Ulm, Germany. Originally based upon the Bauhaus tradition, the school developed a style all its own, integrating art and science—including semiotics—into its design curriculum. Bill was the head of the architecture and product design departments throughout the 1950s. Though the school closed in 1968, many famous design luminaries were associated with it, including Josef Albers, Johannes Itten (1988-1967), Tomas Maldonado (b.1922), Peter Seitz (b.1931), and Walter Zeischegg (1917-1983).

Bill lectured around the world and published many articles and books on art, architecture, and design. Notably, from 1967 to 1971, he served as a member of the Swiss Parliament. Bill’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Guggenheim in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Florence, and the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, among others.

Bill passed away at the age of 85 in Berlin. For more insight into Bill’s fascinating and prolific design career, check out the 2008 documentary film, Max Bill—The Master’s Vision.

Design luminary Emilio Ambasz, in 1988, wrote that the history of Italian design “could not be written without referring to [Zanotta’s} contribution.” Aurelio Zanotta founded Zanotta in Nova Milanese in 1954. In the early years, the company manufactured mostly sofas and armchairs that never made it into the history books. In the 1960s, however, Zanotta began working with the most conceptually driven designers of the days—the Castiglioni brothers, Joe Colombo, and Ettore Sottsass, for example—and by the end of the decade, Zanotta has produced some of the world’s most iconic works of postmodern and radical design.

 Among Zanotta’s notable designs from this game-changing era are the plastic-covered Throw-Away Armchair by Willie Landels (1965); the interlocking Karelia Lounge by Liisi Beckmann (1966); the inflatable Blow Chair by Jonathan De Pas, Donato D'Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi, and Carla Scolari (1967); the prefabricated portable living space Guscio Hut by Roberto Menghi (1968); the beanbag-like Sacco Lounge by Paolini, Gatti, and Teodoro (1968); and the poster child for the radical design movement, the Quaderna Console by Superstudio (1971).

In the 1970s, Zanotta began to mine design history for important, boundary-breaking works that were no longer in production. The first project in this vein was the Castiglioni’s Mezzadro Stool, which had been designed in 1957—inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s concept of “ready-mades—but was never made in large quantities. Spurred on by the success of this re-edition, Zanotta followed with more, for example Italian rationalist architect Giuseppe Terragni’s Follia Chair (1934); Italian designer Marco Zanuso’s Maggiolina Lounge Chair (1947); and Swiss architect Max Bill’s Sgabillo Stool (1952). Zanotta would go to re-edition super rare designs by Italian designer Carlo Mollino, as well. 

In the ’80s, Aurelio Zanotta founded Zabro (Zanotta Brothers) with Alessandro Mendini and Studio Alchimia. This experimental workshop aimed to conserve Italian craft heritage while exploring new design languages. This led to the creation of unclassifiable hybrid objects like Mendini’s Zabro Table/Chair (1984), which transforms from a kind of throne into a dining table. Zanotta next launched Zanotta Edizioni in 1989 to answer to a more selective, collector market. Among these limited editions are Bruno Munari’s Singer Chair Object (1945), Mendini’s Colomobio Chest of Drawers (1985/88), and Joe Tilson’s Alchera Chest (1992). 

Today, Zanotta continues to produce many of its designs classics alongside new contemporary designs. The company has over 200 pieces inside the permanent collections of the most prestigious museums, like the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Victoria & Albert in London, the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.