Max Huber: maxieland jazz!

Giampiero Bosoni, curator of the exhibition being held in Lugano, looks at the work of Max Huber in light of his vibrant exchange between music and graphic design.

Ever since his youth, Max Huber had cultivated a profound passion for jazz. According to many critics, the originality of his work came from his special blend of solid practical training as an artist, based on the Bauhaus' succinct rigour, and a cool, collected freedom towards composition leading him to venture beyond preconceived templates, very similar to the syncopated ebb and flow typical of jazz music.

While on one hand his long association with the vibrant cultural climate of Milan in the late thirties and after the war was a fertile ground for his special qualities as a designer, on another level there is no doubt that his proverbial sense of rhythm and feel for perpetual variations on a theme, both key elements in the art of improvisational jazz, should be seen as a fiery constant running through his work.

From legendary encounters with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, to his historic friendship with the renowned musicologist Roberto Leydi, from his ever-present willingness to always give his best, not only in terms of graphics, for the opening of a new ballroom (Sirenella, 1946 ), or for the graphic design of a few jazz magazines (Pace, 1950; jazztime, 1952), or in conceiving the cover for the Encyclopaedia of Jazz (Messaggerie Musicali, 1952), or even for the poster for a jazz festival right here at Chiasso (jazz chiasso weeks, 1985), there are many precious memories left to us by that little-big man Max, all testifying to his great love of the world of jazz.

Indeed, the exhibition Maxieland jazz! endeavours to rebuild Max's jazz-land and provide an opportunity to put the engaging vitality that emanated from his special and joyful creative energy back into circulation.
Giampiero Bosoni

m.a.x. museo
via Dante Alighieri 6
CH 6830 Chiasso (Svizzera)

Mostra a cura di
Giampiero Bosoni
con Aoi Huber Kono

Grafica e Allestimento
Arata Maruyama

Redazione e ricerca
Chiara Lecce e Chiara Mari

Collaborazione
Marco Bonetto

On show, paintings, graphic design works, pictures and memorabilia from 1930 and ’60, some never unpublished, show Max Huber passion for jazz music: an important step of his personal research on graphics. Graphic and exhibit design by Arata Maruyama
On show, paintings, graphic design works, pictures and memorabilia from 1930 and ’60, some never unpublished, show Max Huber passion for jazz music: an important step of his personal research on graphics. Graphic and exhibit design by Arata Maruyama
A young Maldonado (1949) together with Max and Gianni Dova in front of the painting “Black-Woogie” by Huber.  The painting is the source of the wall decoration for the Sirenella (1949) jazz club designed by Huber
A young Maldonado (1949) together with Max and Gianni Dova in front of the painting “Black-Woogie” by Huber. The painting is the source of the wall decoration for the Sirenella (1949) jazz club designed by Huber

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