3-8 Eck 

Max Bill, a Swiss artist and designer, created ‘3-8 Eck’ out of an unknown material, at an unknown date. Bill was a student at the Bauhaus, an art school in Germany that encouraged artists to embrace technology and create art for the people. This sculpture reflects the utopian ambitions of the Bauhaus movement, which aimed to create a new visual language relevant to industrial society, with an emphasis on geometric abstraction. The white, three-dimensional shape could be endlessly reproduced for the masses. Bill also rejected traditional hierarchies between art and design by creating functional objects like furniture and graphics as well as fine art sculptures and paintings. He was interested in how art could improve life. As historians, we research the artist’s writings, manifestos, and the cultural context of their time to better understand their motivations and artistic choices, reminding us that art’s meaning is always tied to its social and institutional surroundings.