Max Bill is among the key artists of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection. Bill studied at the Dessau Bauhaus under Schlemmer, Kandinsky and Klee, and was the co-founder and first rector of the ›Ulmer Hochschule für Gestaltung‹ in 1950. In Paris Bill had joined the ›abstraction – création‹ group in 1931, to which Arp, Baumeister and Vantongerloo, who also figure in the Collection, belonged as well. With Camille Graeser, Verena Loewensberg and Richard Paul Lohse, the last-mentioned formed the core of the ›Zurich Concrete‹ group, whose spokesman and theorist Bill remained until the 1960s.
Bill’s quinze variations sur un même thème (15 variations on one theme) place an equilateral triangle within an equilateral octogon that develops outwards in a spiral by further opening up of the angels, though the side length remains the same. This derives, as Bill stated, from the insight “…that many art lovers are not clear about how works of art come into being and about their internal and external structure
