a museum‑scale exhibition: over 60 works including painting, sculpture and graphic art retrace almost fifty years of research by the great swiss master. at the centre of the exhibition, sculpture as the synthesis of max bill’s artistic and theoretical thought.
*editor’s note: following the explicit wish of the artist, this press release contains no capital letters.
“when someone creates something, they take responsibility for what they have done… art is a problem of innovation and invention.”
with these words, in 1976, max bill defined art as a process of continuous invention. from here, the lorenzelli arte gallery in milan sets out to present max bill. art is a problem of innovation, a museum‑scale solo exhibition which, from 6 november 2026 to 13 february 2027, brings together over 60 works – paintings, sculptures and graphic works, several of which come from matteo lorenzelli’s personal collection – spanning from the early 1940s to the late 1980s.
the exhibition path privileges sculpture, an often underestimated yet essential field for understanding bill’s significance: in three‑dimensional practice, his theoretical investigation finds one of its most accomplished expressions, between geometric relationships, balances and transformations. among the cornerstones on display: unendliche schleife aus einem kreisring II (1947–48), a continuous loop in gilded brass born from the torsion of a ring; einheit aus drei gleichen volumen (1961–63), three identical volumes interpenetrating one another; dublement (1969, chromed brass) and kern aus doppelung (painted wood), built on the doubling of elements intersecting in space; halber kubus (1966), in swedish black granite, where the compactness of the stone makes the decomposition of the cube tangible; die feste hälfte einer kugel (1972), a mirror‑like semi‑sphere in nickel‑plated aluminium that amplifies the relationship between form, light and space.
alongside the sculptures, a nucleus of oil on canvas works, from 1943 to 1985, documents the stages of bill’s painting and shows colour as a structural element, to be measured and ordered according to precise relationships: from the chromatic equation blau+gelb=rot (1943–71) to konstruktion mit 2 ähnlichen farbgruppen um das zentrum (1956); from the rhomboidal canvases such as rote strahlung (1955–65), with a red square inscribed in a black field, verdichtung aus violett (1964–72), transcolorazione dall’azzurro (1972) and farben um schwarz und weiss (1977), to the systematic variations of konzentration zu komplementärfarben (1972), durchdringung von vier farben IV–III (1966–72) and 3x3x3 (1973), up to symmetrical compositions such as zwillingsgruppe (1970). despite the variety of media, a coherent research emerges, grounded in mathematical thought and in the conviction that beauty, as a function, is an integral part of the work.
the scientific character of the project is reflected in the bilingual italian‑english monographic catalogue, with over 80 colour plates, an unpublished critical text by roberto borghi and a wide selection of archival materials, texts, interviews and photographs. as in previous lorenzelli arte publications dedicated to the artist, and following his precise wish, all texts once again exclude the use of capital letters.
the exhibition renews the historical relationship between lorenzelli arte and max bill, initiated in the late 1960s in bergamo and consolidated up to the entrusting to bruno lorenzelli jr. of the exclusive custodianship of the max bill italia archive. the exhibition expands and completes – also thanks to numerous recent acquisitions – the retrospective max bill (1908–1994): the grammar of beauty held at the m.a.x. museo in chiasso, to which the gallery contributed as one of the main lenders. lorenzelli arte actively collaborates with museums and public institutions worldwide.
