Chromatlas

Person

Johannes Itten

The Bauhaus teacher who opened class with breathing exercises and taught seven kinds of color contrast.

Lived
1888–1967
Bauhaus
Preliminary course, 1919–1922
Book
Kunst der Farbe (The Art of Color), 1961

Johannes Itten (1888–1967) was a Swiss painter and teacher who created and ran the Bauhaus preliminary course from 1919 to 1922. Class could start with breathing and gymnastic exercises before any drawing. Itten followed Mazdaznan, a Zoroastrian-inspired movement with a strict vegetarian diet and meditation; his mysticism clashed with Walter Gropius's turn toward industry, and he left in 1923.

His lasting legacy is a method. Itten taught seven contrasts: of hue; of light and dark (value); of warm and cool; of complements; simultaneous contrast, from Chevreul; of saturation; and of extension, meaning how much area each color gets, from Goethe. Each came with exercises, and art schools still teach them.

His 12-part color wheel, with a triangle of yellow, red and blue at the center, built on his mentor Adolf Hölzel's work and spread worldwide through his book The Art of Color (1961). Color scientists criticize red-yellow-blue wheels for misplacing how colors actually relate, but for many painters Itten's wheel simply is the color wheel.

He also linked palettes to personalities and named the types after seasons. Soon after his death the idea fed 'seasonal color analysis' in the cosmetics world, with books like Color Me a Season telling readers whether they're a spring or a winter. It's a styling system, not science (see color psychology), and a reminder of how far one classroom exercise can travel.

Swatches

Colors

Sources

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