Skip to Content

Quinze variations sur un même thème (Fifteen Variations on a Theme)

A work made of fifteen color lithographs bound into a portfolio.

Image actions

  • A work made of fifteen color lithographs bound into a portfolio.

Date:

Paris: Éditions des chroniques du jour, 1938

Artist:

Max Bill (Swiss, 1908-1994)

About this artwork

Max Bill established himself as the preeminent Swiss designer of the mid-20th century with both his theoretical writing and his clean designs. As he explains in the introduction to this book, understanding the logic of a composition enables an artist to maximize the “pleasure” of creation. Accordingly, Bill presents 15 examples illustrating how an equilateral triangle and an equilateral octagon can interact graphically, providing a detailed explanation for how he generated each unique configuration. The variety is stunning as successive diagrams show how basic geometric forms can explode into new patterns through overlapping, selectively reducing, or building up lines and playing with negative space.

This portfolio is one of 10 retained by the artist, and it bears an inscription to Bill’s friend Marcel Duchamp revealing that it was gifted to him soon after its publication. It’s tantalizing to speculate that Duchamp’s interest in optics, as shown in, for example, Composition with Circles (1919/1950; 1971.924) and 12 Rotoreliefs (1953, 2019.157) may have prompted some fruitful exchanges between the artists on the topic of mathematics, perception and design.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Ryerson and Burnham Libraries Special Collections

Artist

Max Bill

Title

Quinze variations sur un même thème (Fifteen Variations on a Theme)

Place

Switzerland (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1938

Medium

Fifteen color lithographs bound into a portfolio

Inscriptions

Number IV of the HC examplars, signed by the artist and inscribed "à mon cher Marcel Duchamp 1938[39?]"

Dimensions

32 × 31 cm (12 5/8 × 12 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Mary Reynolds Collection, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries

Reference Number

2019.168

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share