WEISSE KOMPRESSION AUS KOMPLEMENTÄRFARBEN 1964

Max Bill’s painting shows diagonal blocks of vibrant color, with red, yellow, green, and white compressing against each other in diamond formation. I can imagine him working on this, thinking about Mondrian and maybe even the Bauhaus, where Bill studied—laying down each stripe of color just so. There is an intentionality to the blocks of color. How they almost vibrate against one another. I think about the physicality of the paint itself. It is not particularly thick, but there is an intensity to the red, yellow, green, and white, and how these colors push against each other, contained within the structure. There is a conversation happening between the artist and the canvas but also with the history of geometric abstraction. It feels as though Bill wants to take what came before him and compress it—creating something new, but undeniably connected. A color compression that echoes through time.