Title & Author:

Max Bill's view of things : Die gute Form : an exhibition 1949 / edited by Lars Müller, in collaboration with the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich ; with texts by Jakob Bill [and four others].

Publication:

Zürich : Lars Müller, [2015]

Description:

159 pages : chiefly illustrations (some color) ; 30 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references.
When we knew what good design was / Deyan Sudjic -- The appealing design of the good object / Claude Lichtenstein -- Die gute Form display panels -- Forms in nature, science, art and technology -- Forms in planning and architecture -- Forms in home fittings and furnishings -- Forms in various appliances and modes of transportation -- Die Gute form -- Good Design also as a Configuration of Panels / Jakob Bill -- Beauty from Function and as Function / Max Bill -- Good Form / Max Bill -- The Conditions of Work Over the Period of Die Gute Form / Jakob Bill.

Summary:

The special exhibition 'Die gute Form', put on by the Swiss Werkbund (SWB) at the Basel trade fair in 1949, was an event that caused a furor far beyond Switzerland's borders. The renowned architect, designer, and graphic artist Max Bill was the mastermind behind the idea and personally selected the exhibits and designed their setting. Eighty exhibition panels showed consumer objects of exemplary design, from a teacup to the jet plane. Bill recognized the emerging, American-style commodity aesthetic that was making inroads into Switzerland and postwar Europe and sought to confront it with a specifically "Swiss" aesthetic shaped by a desire to create long-lasting forms. This publication documents Bill's initiative by presenting the original exhibition panels and Ernst Scheidegger's photographs of the installation, places this famous design show in a theoretical and design-historical context, examines its background, and creates a link to the publishing house's first publication from 1983.

ISBN:

9783037783726 (English edition ; hardback)
3037783729 (English edition ; hardback)

Subject:

Bill, Max, 1908-1994 Exhibitions.
Bill, Max, 1908-1994
Exhibitions Design.
Product design Switzerland History 21st century Pictorial works.
Design Switzerland Exhibitions.
Consumer goods Switzerland History 20th century Exhibitions.
Industrial design Switzerland History 20th century Exhibitions.
Conception de produit Suisse Histoire 21e siècle Ouvrages illustrés.
Design Suisse Expositions.
Biens de consommation Suisse Histoire 20e siècle Expositions.
Design Suisse Histoire 20e siècle Expositions.
Consumer goods
Design
Industrial design
Product design
Switzerland

Form/genre:

exhibition catalogs.
Pictorial works
Exhibition catalogs
History
Catalogues d'exposition.

Added entries:

Müller, Lars, 1955-
Bill, Jakob.
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, editor.

Gute Form : an exhibition 1949

Holdings:

Location: Library main 288883
Call No.: BIB 230896
Status: Available