wiedler.ch

book (design) story #622

max bill:
allianz

kunsthaus zürich, 1942
printer: buchdruckerei neue zürcher zeitung, zürich
size: 21 x 15 cm
photographer: hugo p. herdeg, eidenbenz, spreng, etc.
designer: max bill

with this booklet the series of exhibition catalogues of the allianz, a group of swiss modern artists, is more or less complete. the other catalogues from the years 1936-1954, designed by max bill, jan tschichold and richard paul lohse, are featured in the stories 202, 149, 203, 176, 136. this 1942 catalogue was designed by max bill (1908-1994), typeset all lowercase in garamond. note that common to all of these covers is a long vertical list of artists' names – i think originally inspired by this catalogue.

the text, also by max bill, mentions two main tendencies among swiss modern artists: "surrealist" and "constructive". ernst maass, meret oppenheim (above), serge brignoni, hans erni (below left) belong to the first. positioned between these two poles are artsists such as anna indermaur, walter klinger (below right), ...

... le corbusier, pétra petitpierre or walter kern. the catalogue section is printed on brown paper, ...

... followed by reproductions of "constructive" works: teo eble, jean p. schmid, jean kohler, ...

... leo leuppi, sophie taeuber-arp, louis weber, max huber, ...

... paul klee, max bill, werner bischof (a drawing by the famous photographer), verena loewensberg, ...

... richard paul lohse and hans hinterreiter.

on the back a drawing and an ad, both designed by max bill.