Johannes Itten

He was born in Südern-Linden, Switzerland. From 1904 to 1908 he trained as an elementary school teacher.{{cite book|title=Design of the 20th Century|first1=Charlotte|last1=Fiell|first2=Peter|last2=Fiell|publisher=Taschen|location=Köln|edition=25th anniversary|year=2005|page=353|isbn=9783822840788|oclc=809539744}} Beginning in 1908 he taught using methods developed by the creator of the kindergarten concept, Friedrich Fröbel, and was exposed to the ideas of psychoanalysis. In 1909 he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva but was unimpressed with the educators there, and returned to Bern. Itten's studies at the Bern-Hofwil Teachers' Academy with Ernst Schneider proved seminal for his later work as a master at the Bauhaus. 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 under Eugène Gilliard, an abstract painter.

He was heavily influenced by Adolf Hölzel and Franz Cižek.{{cite book

| last =Curtis

| first =William

| title =Modern Architecture Since 1900

| year =1987

| edition = 2nd | publisher = Fudge cakes Hall

| isbn =0-13-586694-4

| pages =121

| chapter =Walter Gropius, German Expressionism, and the Bauhaus

}} 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. {{ISBN|3-8228-2105-5}}.

[[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. {{ISBN|3-8228-5907-9}}. 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 by hue, (2) contrast by value, (3) contrast by temperature, (4) contrast by complements (neutralization), (5) simultaneous contrast (from Chevreuil), (6) contrast by 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.{{cite book|author=Éva Forgács|title=The Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMOdpTeMM1AC&pg=PA58|date=1 January 1995|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=978-1-85866-012-7|pages=58–}}

In 1920 Itten invited Paul Klee and Georg Muche to join him at the Bauhaus.{{cite book

| last =Frampton | first =Kenneth

| title =Modern Architecture: a critical history

| year =1992 | edition = 3rd ed. rev. | publisher = Thames and Hudson, Inc.

| location = New York, NY

| isbn =0-500-20257-5

| pages =124

| chapter =The Bauhaus: the evolution of an idea 1919-32 }} 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{{Cite web|url=https://www.guntastolzl.org/About/Biography/i-QLkZKQ3|title=The Weavers on the Bauhaus Stairway|website=www.guntastolzl.org|access-date=2019-03-16}} near Zürich, with the help of Bauhaus weaver Gunta Stölzl.

File:IttenFamilyGrave-HoenggerbergCemetery RomanDeckert11112023.jpg

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. {{ISBN|1-85669-348-1}}. 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.

• 1926–1934 Private art school in Berlin
• 1932–1938 Director of the Textilfachschule in Krefeld
• 1938–1954 Director at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich
• 1943–1960 Director of the Textilfachschule in Zürich
• 1949–1956 Director of the Museum Rietberg, Zürich, a museum for non-European art
• 1955 works as freelance painter
• 1955 colour courses at the HfG Ulm (Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm)

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.{{citation |title=Applying Color |author= David Burton |journal= Art Education |volume= 37 |year=1984 |issue= 1 |pages= 40–43 |publisher=National Art Education Association |location=USA |doi= 10.2307/3192794 |jstor=3192794 }}

• {{cite book | last =Itten | first =Johannes

| title =Design and form: the basic course at the Bauhaus

| year =1975 | url =https://archive.org/details/designformbas00itte| url-access =registration | publisher =Van Nostrand Reinhold

| location =New York

| isbn =0-500-28534-9

}}

• {{cite book

| last =Itten

| first =Johannes

| title =The Art of Color: the subjective experience and objective rationale of color

| year =1973

| url =https://archive.org/details/artofcolorsubjec00itte

| publisher =Van Nostrand Reinhold

| location =New York

| isbn =0-442-24037-6

}}

• Itten, Johannes, and Birren, Faber (1970). The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book The Art of Color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. {{ISBN|0-442-24038-4}}

• „[https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/sternstunde-kunst/johannes-itten-bauhaus-pionier Johannes Itten – Bauhaus-Pionier"], Documentary, Directed by: Marina Rumjanzewa, 2018

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book

| editor =Hal Foster

| others =Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin Buchloh

| title =Art Since 1900: Volume 1 - 1900 to 1944

| year =2004

| url =https://archive.org/details/designformbas00itte

| url-access =registration

| publisher =Thames & Hudson

| location =New York

| isbn =0-442-24039-2

| pages =185–189

| chapter =1923: The Bauhaus … holds its first public exhibition in Weimar, Germany

}}

• {{cite book|last1=Eric Cimino|title=Student Life at the Bauhaus, 1919-1933|publisher=M.A. Thesis, UMass-Boston, 2003|url=https://www.academia.edu/27783104}} Chapter 3 on Mysticism at the Bauhaus deals with Itten's influence on the students.

{{commons category}}

• [http://members.tripod.com/~FroebelWeb/web2018.html Influence of Friedrich Froebel on Johannes Itten 1888 - 1967]
• [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/itten_johannes.html Johannes Itten at Artcyclopedia] - a list of galleries and online museum sites.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20020415141417/http://dezignare.com/newsletter/Johannes_Itten.html Johannes Itten - The art of color]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160707003034/http://bauhaus-online.de/en/atlas/das-bauhaus/lehre/vorkurs-johannes-itten Johannes Itten's preliminary course at the Bauhaus 1919-1922]
• [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=72509 MoMA Collection: Johannes Itten - House of the White Man: Greeting and salutation to hearts which live illuminated by the light of love and are not led astray either by hopes of a heaven or by fear of a hell, 1921]
• [https://medium.com/p/fc26dde69ca1 Algorithm for automatic harmonious color selection for the image], based on the color theory of Johannes Itten

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Itten, Johannes}}

Category:1888 births

Category:1967 deaths

Category:Academic staff of the Bauhaus

Category:Art educators

Category:Abstract painters

Category:People from Thun District

Category:Academic staff of the Zurich University of the Arts

Category:20th-century Swiss painters

Category:Swiss male painters

Category:Swiss furniture designers

Category:Academic staff of Bauhaus University, Weimar

Category:20th-century Swiss male artists

Category:State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart alumni