Nine Fields Divided by Means of Two Colors

Nine Fields Divided by Means of Two Colors by Max Bill was created around 1968 in response to WWII and the damage it did to the human psyche. This was Bill's attempt at restoring that psyche and that normal state of mind by making a piece of art that was orderly, not like many of the other art works that were being created around that time that were actually depicting the chaos that was happening all around them and in different parts of the world. This creation of symmetry and of mathematical order was meant to calm people as they could understand painttings like these and not have to think about the meaning of them, further damaging their psyche if they realized it was a painting like Paul Klee's painting Tod Und Feuer, which he painted around 1940.

 

This painting also comments on the human condition, but not in a good way. This painting makes the statement that we are all destined to be murderous , evil, backstabbing people and that there was really nothing we could do about it. Klee was saying that we are stick figures whose only meaning is death and fire.

 

Diagonal from Bright Equality and Contrast by Richard-Paul Lohse was made between 1956 and 1975. This goes along with the movement with Max Bill that was taking place at that time to try and repair the human mind from all of the death and destruction that WWII caused in not only Europe, but in America too.

This, too is a painting by Richard-Paul Lohse in the same movement, or state of mind, if you will that he painted the previous painting in. He and other artists were trying to give some equality and order back into the world that had taken all of it away so violently. All viewers could look at this painting and see the same thing. They could feel the same thing and think the same thing. Because of the way that people had been being treated because of their differences, these artists wanted people to all have equal feelings and reactions to their artwork if that was the only thing that they could feel equal about and if that was the only thing that the artists could contribute to the restoration of human life after the war, they were going to do it. If there was any way they could help to restore order in humanity, this was their way of contribuiting their talents to the world and to those who had been affected by the horrors of the war.