Johannes Itten | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Itten c. 1920 | |
| Born | (1888-11-11)11 November 1888 Südern-Linden, Switzerland |
| Died | 25 March 1967(1967-03-25) (aged 78) Zürich, Switzerland |
| Education | Academy of Arts,Stuttgart |
| Known for | Painting,Drawing,Color theory,Architecture |
| Notable work | Farbkreis (1961) |
| Movement | Expressionism |
Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swissexpressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with theBauhaus (Staatliches Bauhaus) school. Together with German-American painterLyonel Feininger and German sculptorGerhard Marcks, under the direction of German architectWalter Gropius, Itten was part of the core of theWeimar Bauhaus.
He was born inSüdern-Linden, Switzerland. From 1904 to 1908 he trained as an elementary school teacher.[1] Beginning in 1908 he taught using methods developed by the creator of thekindergarten concept,Friedrich Fröbel, and was exposed to the ideas ofpsychoanalysis. In 1909 he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts inGeneva but was unimpressed with the educators there, and returned toBern. Itten's studies at the Bern-Hofwil Teachers' Academy with Ernst Schneider proved seminal for his later work as a master at theBauhaus. Itten adopted principles espoused by Schneider, including the practice of not correcting his students' creative work on an individual basis, for fear that this would crush the creative impulse. Rather, he selected certain common mistakes to correct for the class as a whole. In 1912, he returned to Geneva, where he studied underEugène Gilliard, anabstract painter.
He was heavily influenced byAdolf Hölzel andFranz Cižek.[2] Itten opened a private art school inVienna, using the work and textbook of Eugène Gilliard as a base. From Hölzel, Itten adopted a series of basic shapes (the line, the plane, the circle, the spiral) as a means from which to begin creation, and the use ofgymnastic exercises to relax his students and prepare them for the experiences that were to occur in the class.[3]
From 1919 to 1922, Itten taught at the Bauhaus, developing the innovative "preliminary course"[4] which was to teach students the basics of material characteristics, composition, and color. "Itten theorized seven types of color contrast and devised exercises to teach them. His color contrasts include[d] (1) contrast byhue, (2) contrast byvalue, (3) contrast bytemperature, (4) contrast bycomplements (neutralization), (5) simultaneous contrast (fromChevreuil), (6) contrast bysaturation (mixtures with gray), and (7) contrast by extension (fromGoethe)."[5]
In 1919 he invitedGertrud Grunow, to teach a course on the "theory of harmony" at the Bauhaus. This involved using music and relaxation techniques with the aim of improving the students' creativity.[6]
In 1920 Itten invitedPaul Klee andGeorg Muche to join him at the Bauhaus.[7] He published a book,The Art of Color, which describes his ideas as a furthering of Adolf Hölzel's color wheel. Itten's so called "color sphere" went on to include 12 colors.
In 1924, Itten established the Ontos Weaving Workshops[8] nearZürich, with the help of Bauhaus weaverGunta Stölzl.
Itten was a follower ofMazdaznan, a neo-Zoroastrian religion founded in the United States. He observed a strictvegetarian diet and practicedmeditation as a means to develop inner understanding and intuition, which was for him the principal source of artistic inspiration and practice.[3] Itten's mysticism and the reverence in which he was held by a group of the students, some of whom converted to Mazdaznan (e.g. Georg Muche), created conflict with Walter Gropius who wanted to move the school in a direction that embracedmass production rather than solely individual artistic expression. The rift led to Itten's resignation from the Bauhaus and his prompt replacement byLászló Moholy-Nagy in 1923.[9][10] From 1926 to 1934 he had a small art and architecture school in Berlin, in whichErnst Neufert, the former chief-architect of Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus, taught as well from 1932 to 1934.
Itten's works exploring the use and composition of color resemble the squareop art canvases of artists such asJosef Albers,Max Bill andBridget Riley, and theexpressionist works ofWassily Kandinsky.
Itten's work on color is also said to be an inspiration forseasonal color analysis. Itten had been the first to associate color palettes with four types of people, and had designated those types with the names ofseasons. His studies of color palettes and color interaction directly influenced the Op Art movement and other color abstraction base movements. Shortly after his death, his designations gained popularity in thecosmetics industry with the publication ofColor Me A Season. Cosmetologists today continue to use seasonal color analysis, a tribute to the early work by Itten.[5]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
