"From Surface to Space": Max Bill and Concrete Sculpture in Buenos Aires

This illustrated booklet explores the creative dialogue between the Swiss artist Max Bill and the Argentine avant-­garde from 1946 to 1955. In the featured essay, art historian Francesca Ferrari frames Bill’s relationship to his Argentine peers as one of reciprocal impact, revealing how artists in Buenos Aires—such as Carmelo Arden Quin, Claudio Girola, Enio Iommi, Gyula Kosice, and Lidy Prati—revised and expanded Bill’s theories of Concretism while Bill reoriented his characterization of Concrete art after encountering their work. Produced on the occasion of the exhibition “From Surface to Space”: Max Bill and Concrete Sculpture in Buenos Aires, this publication highlights these artists’ shared aspirations to produce objects that could activate their sur­roundings and provoke visual, tactile, and synesthetic responses in the viewer.