The Bauhaus

Johannes Itten

​Johannes Itten was born on the 11th of November in 1888 in sudern-Linden in Switzerland. His father was a school teacher, so he was trained at a teacher training institute in Bern where he was trained to be a primary school teacher. only for a brief time did he teach, before spending a semester at the Geneva Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Genf and then taking a diploma in mathematics and science to teach secondary school. However, Johannes Itten eventually decided he'd be happier as a painter after travelling abroad, and ended up joining the first instructors at the Bauhaus in 1919. While teaching between 1919 and 1923 Itten developed a universal doctrine of design, which he taught as the preliminary course at the Bauhaus. He spent his time at the Bauhaus encouraging students  explore their own feeling, and to experiment with colour, materials and form, instead of just copying the work of the old masters. The course emphasised three key elements; studies of natural forms and colours, the analysis of canonical artworks, and life drawing. Itten was classed as a pioneer of holistic art teaching and eventually went on to run his own art school in Berlin in 1926. The school trained painter, printmakers, photographers, and architects. While still teaching in 1932 at his own art school, he would teach in senior positions at renowned art academies. Towards the end of 1938, Itten became the director of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zurich and of the school affiliated with it.

​Itten was the first to create an art foundation course where he pioneered the techniques that remain central to art school teaching today, these include: the encouragement of self-expression and experimentation with materials and techniques. The course was a starting point for all students, and were required to complete this training before being allowed to move on to more specific course. He also developed an intricate theory of colour, which would allow an artist to identify the best combinations of colours.