A Delicate Thread: Vantongerloo, Bill and Florsheim Geoffrey Goldberg
Georges Vantongerloo, Max Bill and Lilllian Florsheim were practicing artists in the mid-20th century. Although they lived in different countries, they knew each other, shared materials, ideas, and visited each other’s studios. They were friends. Close examination of their sculptural work reveals an extended period of shared interests, techniques and formal ambitions. This stands in contrast to their more public postures, with each having a very different model of engagement with the outside world of exhibition and commerce, ranging from the hermetic to the peripatetic. Based on personal and archival materials, this is a discussion of conceptual attitudes, from more private and personal motivations to their more outgoing selves. The lecture will place these three into a richer context, so that their contributions to 20th-century art and design are more appropriately appreciated.