teaching method
In 1919, Swiss art instructor Johannes Itten accepted an invitation to teach painting from Alma Mahler-Gropius and Walter Gropius at the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar. There, Itten developed a Basic Course for students whose works were “devoid of individual expression” with the aim of awakening their dormant artistic talents. Itten wanted his students to build original work and natural self-confidence. New artistic forms could only be reached through the synchronization of physical, sensual, spiritual, and intellectual forces and abilities (Form 8). To bolster self-reliance, Itten prescribed assignments that he left uncorrected (“giving [the artist] enough time for taking stock of himself”) (Form 9).
In teaching his theory of forms and colors and his theory of contrasts, Itten prompted students to experience subject matter on both emotional and intellectual levels, such as rendering analytical and empathetic reproductions of masterworks (Form 13). In particular, Itten theorized that people experienced color on different, individual levels. He would first teach his pupils about color and then ask them to develop their own palette of subjective colors. Itten outlined his theories in “The Art of Color,” a textbook for his Bauhaus course.
johannes
itten
Allison Leach / History of Design / March 2012
color studies by Johannes Itten, c. 1920
Over the next few years at the Bauhaus, Itten began observing a societal need for a balance between technology and inward-looking Illustration by Suzanne Work Hokanson spirituality – a view he developed from his studies in Eastern philosophy, Persian Zoroastrianism and Early Christianity. Itten started his classes with relaxation, breathing, and concentration exercises to prepare pupils with the intellectual and physical readiness that intensive artistic work requires. Itten preached, “He who wants to become a master of color must see, feel, and experience each individual color in its many endless combinations with all other colors. Colors must have a mystical capacity for spiritual expression, without being tied to the objects” (Elements 6).
The Color Circle
Itten, Johannes (1973). “Design and Basic Form”
“The color star, the projection of the surface of the color sphere onto a plane with the gradations of the twelve main colors towards black and white, provides a good survey of the structure of the whole essence of color.” (33)
The Color Star
Allison Leach / History of Design / March 2012
“The study of the twelve-part color circle forms the basis of my constructive theory of colors. The build-up begins with three primary colors: yellow, blue, and red. Closely defined conceptions must exist for these primary colors.” (32)
Light-dark contrast Day and night, light and darkness – this polarity is of fundamental significance in human life and nature generally. (Elements 36)
Complementary contrast Two [complementary] colors make a strange pair. They are opposite, they require each other. They incite each other to maximum vividness when adjacent; and they annihilate each other, to grayblack, when mixed – like fire and water. (Elements 49)
Simultaneous contrast The simultaneously generated complementary occurs as a sensation in the eye of the beholder, and is not objectively present. (Elements 52)
Contrast of extension Contrast of extension involves the relative areas of two or more color patches. It is the contrast between much and little, or great and small. (Elements 59)
Images by Weber State University
Cold-warm contrast Experiments have demonstrated a difference of five to seven degrees in the subjective feeling of heat or cold between a workroom painted in blue-green and one painted in red-orange. (Elements 45)
The Seven Color Contrasts Contrast of saturation Saturation, or quality, relates to the degree of purity of a color. Contrast of a saturation is the contrast between pure, intense colors, and dull, diluted colors. (Elements 55)
Allison Leach / History of Design / March 2012
Contrast of hue Emphasizing one color enhances expressive character. (Elements 34)
the individual color and
“Colors are forces, radiant energies that affect us positively or negatively, whether we are aware of it or not.” (12)
“Color is life; for a world without colors appears to us as dead. Colors are primordial ideas, children of the aboriginal colorless light and its counterpart, colorless darkness. As flame begets light, so light engenders colors. Colors are the children of light, and light is their mother. Light, that first phenomenon of the world, reveals to us the spirit and living soul of the world through colors.” (8)
“Thunder and lightening frighten us; but the colors of the rainbow and the northern lights soothe and elevate the soul.” (8)
“Subjective timbre is significant of a person’s inner being [...] Intrinsic constitution and structures are reflected in the colors, which are generated by dispersion and filtration of the white light of life and by electromagnetic vibrations in the psychophysiological medium of the individual.” (26)
Itten, Johannes and Birren, Faber (1970). “The Elements of Color”
Allison Leach / History of Design / March 2012
(according to Itten)
subjective color experience for
In addressing this challenge, I thought about how Itten might design a pair of modern glasses – a product through which one literally views the world. The glasses feature computer-operated prism lenses that filter out particular colors for the viewer depending on his or her color preferences. The filter type can be adjusted via a discreet button on the frame’s left side, allowing for seamless and quick transitions. The glasses resemble sunglasses at first glance, but upon closer inspection, unique prism lenses are discerned.
Allison Leach / History of Design / March 2012
glasses
Default Filter
Original image: “Sunrise through diffraction glasses” (Flickr)
computer prism-lenses
Itten’s Illustration of Newton’s prism color studies (Elements 15)
discreet filtertransitioning button
Spiritual or relaxation experiences can also be encouraged via filters that correspond with the individual’s subjective timbre. I envision these glasses as a particularly useful product for artists and designers in the lives of whom color theory plays a critical role, as well as the everyday consumer who desires controlled color mood experiences. For the artist/designer, the glasses would function primarily as a teaching tool, whereas for the everyday consumer, the glasses would serve as a more recreational device. Perhaps the glasses would inspire courses in understanding the role of color in art – or public lessons on reaching spiritual enlightenment using a particular series of prism lens filters.
Allison Leach / History of Design / March 2012
The glasses-wearer can alter the color scheme in tandem with his or her alterations in mood (or desired mood change). For example, a naturally blue-green environment seen through a red-orange filter might result in a five to seven degree increase in perceived temperature, as Itten suggests (Elements 45).