Itten, Johannes

(1888-1967)

   artist; developed the Bauhaus's* intro-ductory course in design. Born in the Berner Oberland in Switzerland, he at-tended the teachers institute in Bern-Hofwil before studying at Geneva's Ecole des Beaux Arts. Although he prepared to teach secondary school (he received a diploma in 1912), he soon turned to painting and studied during 1913-1916 under Stuttgart s Adolf Hoelzel. He turned to abstract painting, and his work appeared in 1919 in Adolf Loos's first nonobjective art exhibit in Vienna. Hav-ing taught privately in Vienna since 1916, he met Walter Gropius* in 1919. Already well known, Gropius invited him to join the Bauhaus.

   Several of Itten s Vienna students accompanied him to Weimar, where Itten created the Bauhaus's Vorkurs in design. He brought to his teaching Hoelzel's fixation on problems of color and its distribution, harmony, and balance, as well as the interaction of colors in a pictorial presentation. Until Paul Klee* and Wassily Kandinsky* arrived, he also managed the school s rather nonutilitarian study program. His pedagogy and his immersion in Mazdaznan philosophy (the-osophy) inspired Bauhaus activities until his troubled departure in October 1923. With the Bauhaus increasingly polarized between his methodology and the prac-tical craftsmanship of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,* Gropius's decision to market the school's work marked the eclipse of Itten's influence. The latter's unbridled commitment to spontaneity, coupled with his resolve not to correct student mis-takes, also annoyed Gropius.

   Although Itten returned to Switzerland to study Mazdaznan philosophy, he relocated to Berlin* in 1926 and founded the Moderne Kunstschule (Modern Art School). His first publication, Tagebucher (Diaries), appeared in 1930. In 1931 he became director of Krefeld's new Hohere Fachschule fur Textil-Flachenkunst (Technical school for textile art). Three years later the Berlin school was closed by the Nazis and in 1938 Itten went to Amsterdam to teach and work on commission. He was elected director of Zurich's School and Mu-seum of Arts and Crafts in November 1938 and relocated permanently to Zürich in 1943.

   REFERENCES:Barron, "Degenerate Art"; Laqueur, Weimar; Neumann, Bauhaus.