Johannes Itten

(b Südern-Linden, 11 Nov 1888; d Zurich, 25 May 1967). Swiss painter, textile designer, teacher, writer and theorist. He trained first as a primary school teacher in Berne (1904-6), where he became familiar with progressive educational and psychoanalytical ideas. He was, however, interested in art and music, and in 1909 he decided to become a painter. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva but was so disappointed that he returned to teacher training in Berne. He read widely and developed an interest in religion and mystic philosophy. After qualifying he returned to Geneva and greatly enjoyed the course on the geometric elements of art run by the Swiss painter Eugène Gilliard (1861-1921). After travelling in Europe, in 1913 Itten went to Stuttgart to study at the academy of Adolf Hölzel, a pioneer of abstraction who was also convinced of the importance of automatism in art. Greatly impressed, Itten absorbed his teaching on colour and contrast and his analyses of Old Masters paintings. Encouraged by Hölzel, he made abstract collages incorporating torn paper and cloth.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

A well-known artist, designer, and educator, Itten is perhaps best known for contributions to the Foundation Course (Vorkurs) at the Bauhaus in Weimar between 1919 and 1923. Born in Switzerland, Itten's early career was in primary school education but he gave it up to study fine art briefly at the École des Beaux Arts in Geneva. However, dissatisfied with the conservatism of the curriculum he went on to study mathematics and science at university before studying painting at the Stuttgart Academy from 1913 to 1916. Well aware of the avant-garde ideas of the Blaue Reiter and Cubism, he exhibited at the Sturm art gallery in Berlin. He then moved to Vienna to teach and pain at his own art school and, having been introduced to Walter Gropius by Alma Mahler (who was married to Gropius) took up a teaching post at the Bauhaus in 1919. In his classes he encouraged students to experiment with form, colour, and texture but his commitment to eastern mysticism and the wearing of monk-like robes led to tensions with Gropius, the institution's director. Furthermore, in the difficult political and economic climate in early 1920s Germany Gropius came under increasing pressure to demonstrate the relevance of the Bauhaus in daily life. As a consequence, Itten's experiential and expressionist approach to creativity was increasingly at odds with Gropius' growing commitment to the machine aesthetic as a key goal of the Bauhaus's educational curriculum. On leaving the Bauhaus Itten studied philosophy in Zurich before setting up his own design school in Berlin from 1926 to 1931. He also became director of the technical school for textiles at Krefeld from 1932 to 1938. He left Germany, first working in Amsterdam and then moving to Zurich where he became the director of the Museum and School of Applied Arts from 1938 to 1953. From 1943 to 1953 he also directed the technical school for textiles and the Rietbergmuseum.

Itten, Johannes (1888-1967), Swiss painter, teacher, and prolific visual and educational theorist. Between 1908 and 1913 Itten studied art and pedagogics in Geneva and Vienna, where he subsequently ran a private art school and prepared foundation courses in art education. He later taught at the Weimar Bauhaus (1919-23), where he founded the obligatory preparatory course. In 1926 he opened a private art school in Berlin which included a photographic class headed first by Umbo and later by Lucia Moholy. After leaving Germany in 1938 he became director of the Zurich Design School, remaining until 1953. Although Itten's influence on photography was indirect, most teachers in the field owe their basic curricula to his systematic approach.

— Rolf Sachsse

Bibliography

• Itten, J., Werke und Schriften (1978)

Johannes Itten (November 11, 1888 - May 27, 1967) was a Swiss painter, designer teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school (Staatliches Bauhaus).

Life and Work

Born in Südern-Linden, Switzerland, from 1904 to 1908 he studied as an elementary school teacher. Beginning in 1908 he taught using methods developed by Friedrich Froebel and was exposed to the ideas of psychoanalysis. He later enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva but then returned to Berne, after being unimpressed with the educators there. Itten's studies at the Berne-Hofwil Teachers' Academy with Ernst Schneider proved seminal for his later work as a master at the Bauhaus. Among other principles espoused by Schneider, Itten adopted 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.

He was taught by Adolf Hölzel using the work and textbook of Eugène Gilliard, an abstract painter, 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.

From 1919-1922, Itten taught at the Bauhaus, developing the innovative preliminary course which was to teach students the basics of material characteristics, composition, and color. He also published a book - The Art of Color- which describes these 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 Zurich, with the help of Bauhaus weaver Gunta Stölzl.

Farbkreis by Johannes Itten (1961)

Itten's work on color is also said to be an inspiration for seasonal color analysis, Itten having been the first to associate color pallates with four types of people and designating those types with the names of seasons. 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.

Itten was a follower of Mazdaznan, a fire cult originating in the United States that was largely derived from Zoroastrianism. 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 hold on the students increasingly alienated him from the other leading figures of the Bauhaus, particularly Walter Gropius and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who were moving the school in a direction that embraced mass production rather than individual artistic expression and craftsmanship. The rift led to Itten's forced resignation from the Bauhaus.

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.

Books

• The Elements of Color
• The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color
• Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus and Later, Revised Edition
• The Color Star

External links

• influence of Friedrich Froebel on Johannes Itten 1888 - 1967
• Johannes Itten at Artcyclopedia - a list of galleries and online museum sites.
• Johannes Itten - The art of color

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)