Johannes Itten & Color Theory
Artists and designers use color theory to understand the effects of mixing colors. Although the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci contain writings on color theory, most color theorists point to Isaac Newton as the developer of color theory. Swiss artist Johannes Itten expanded upon the work of Newton and others to develop his theory of color. Itten's theory takes into account not only a color's contrasting properties but also its emotional ones. His work was first developed at the Bauhaus. Artists and designers continue to refer to and use his work to this day.
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History
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The first color wheel was invented by Newton, according to Color-Wheel-Pro.com. His early color wheels included bars of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan and blue. Newton joined them together so that the continuum of color could be seen.
A century later, Goethe expanded on Newton's theory by studying the psychological effects of colors. In addition to determining that colors could be warm or cool, he also associated certain colors with certain feelings.
Itten, who taught at the famed Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, developed the concept of color chords, according to Color-Wheel-Pro.com. He also modified the color wheel.
Features
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Itten developed "methodologies for coordinating colors utilizing the hue's contrasting properties," according to Janet Lynn Ford on Worqx.com. Sarah Van Arsdale with the Sheffield School of Interior Design further clarifies Ittan's work in an article on at Dezignare.com by explaining that Itten's color wheel also looked at color's subjective feeling. Itten outlined his theories in his book, "The Art of Color", which became a textbook for a course that he taught at the Bauhaus.
However, Itten departed from Goethe's work, which looked at how color affected people in a general sense. Itten theorized that people reacted to color quite individually. To teach his Bauhaus students what this meant, according to Van Arsdale, Itten first taught his pupils about color in general and then asked them to develop their own palette of subjective colors.
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Time Frame
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The Bauhaus operated from 1919 to 1933. However, Itten's career at the school ended in 1923, about 10 years before it closed. Itten opposed the Bauhaus' production of commercial work and after a longstanding conflict with Bauhaus founder, Walter Gropius, he resigned from the school, according to Germany Today.
Significance
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Itten's work has proven to be so pivotal that designers and artists still use his concepts in their work to this day. According to Van Arsdale, human beings during every era have attempted to order the world according to their view of it. Itten's theory of color was one man's attempt to order and define the world and how people saw it.
Expert Insight
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"Color is life, for a world without color seems dead. As a flame produces light, light produces color. As intonation lends color to the spoken word, color lends spiritually realized sound to form." -- Johannes Itten
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit This color wheel shows red, green and violet. (J. Arthur H. Hatt/Wikimedia Commons)
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Comments
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donjusko
May 09, 2010
That's not Itten's color wheel, why not show his true color, show his Itten Star.
