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Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus ( Staatliches Bauhaus) school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feininger and German sculptor Gerhard Marcks, under the direction of German architect Walter Gropius, Itten was part of the core of the Weimar Bauhaus.
He was heavily influenced by Adolf Hölzel and Franz Cižek. Itten opened a private art school in Vienna, 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 of gymnastic exercises to relax his students and prepare them for the experiences that were to occur in the class.Droste, Magdalena (2002). Bauhaus: 1919-1933, pp. 24-32. Taschen. . [[File:Farbkreis Itten 1961.svg|thumb|"Farbkreis" by Johannes Itten (1961). Main topic: RYB color model.]] From 1919 to 1922, Itten taught at the Bauhaus, developing the innovative "preliminary course"Ruhrberg, Karl, and Walther, Ingo F. (2000). Art of the 20th Century, p. 177. Taschen. . 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 included (1) contrast by hue, (2) contrast by Color value, (3) contrast by temperature, (4) contrast by complements (neutralization), (5) simultaneous contrast (from Chevreuil), (6) contrast by Color saturation (mixtures with gray), and (7) contrast by extension (from Goethe)."
In 1919 he invited Gertrud 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.
In 1920 Itten invited Paul Klee and Georg Muche to join him at the Bauhaus. 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 near Zürich, with the help of Bauhaus weaver Gunta Stölzl.
Itten was a follower of Mazdaznan, a neo-Zoroastrian religion founded in the United States. He observed a strict vegetarian diet and practiced meditation as a means to develop inner understanding and intuition, which was for him the principal source of artistic inspiration and practice. 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 embraced mass production rather than solely individual artistic expression. The rift led to Itten's resignation from the Bauhaus and his prompt replacement by László Moholy-Nagy in 1923.Magdalena Droste and the Bauhaus Archive, Bauhaus, Taschen, 2006Raizman, David (2003). A History of Modern Design, p. 184. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. . From 1926 to 1934 he had a small art and architecture school in Berlin, in which Ernst 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 square op art canvases of artists such as Josef Albers, Max Bill and Bridget Riley, and the expressionist works of Wassily Kandinsky.
Influence
Itten's work on color is also said to be an inspiration for seasonal color analysis. Itten had been the first to associate color palettes with four types of people, and had designated those types with the names of seasons. 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 the cosmetics industry with the publication of Color Me A Season. Cosmetologists today continue to use seasonal color analysis, a tribute to the early work by Itten.
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Categories: 1888 Births, 1967 Deaths, Academic Staff Of The Bauhaus, Swiss Art Educators, Swiss Abstract Painters, People From Thun District, Academic Staff Of The Zurich University Of The Arts, 20th-century Swiss Painters, Swiss Male Painters, Swiss Furniture Designers, Academic Staff Of Bauhaus University, Weimar, 20th-century Swiss Male Artists, State Academy Of Fine Arts Stuttgart Alumni, Artists In The Degenerate Art Exhibition
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