Helles zentrum 1970

Editor: We're looking at "Helles zentrum," created by Max Bill in 1970 using acrylic paint. It’s a very balanced composition of a bright green square against a layered blue background. I’m immediately struck by how…calmly geometric it feels. What’s your take on this work? Curator: This piece, emerging from the Concrete Art movement, really begs us to consider the social and political implications of abstraction itself. Remember, Concrete Art sought to create purely non-representational forms. Max Bill believed that art should reflect and even contribute to a rational and ordered society. But is this inherent "order" truly neutral? Whose order are we reflecting? Editor: So you're saying it’s not just about simple shapes and colours? Curator: Precisely. Think about the time this was made. The 1970s saw increasing social unrest, challenges to established power structures, and questioning of societal norms. Bill’s hard-edge abstraction, with its cool, precise geometry, could be interpreted as a yearning for control and stability during turbulent times. Is this a radical visual language, or a conservative response? Does the hard-edged geometry reinforce existing hierarchies? Editor: I see, it's like he’s creating a visual counterpoint to the chaos. But, is there space for individual expression within such strict geometry? Curator: That’s the critical question, isn’t it? Bill would argue that universal aesthetic principles exist, accessible to everyone. But we also need to examine how this pursuit of universality might overshadow individual experiences and perspectives, and indeed whose perspectives become canonized as “universal.” Editor: This makes me think differently about the power that even abstract forms can hold. Curator: Exactly. By examining the socio-political context, we reveal the subtle, yet pervasive, ways in which art engages with—and potentially reinforces—existing power dynamics. This "calm" might actually be a very pointed statement.