Lithograph.
A well-known artist, designer, and educator, Itten is perhaps best known for contributions to the Foundation Course (Vorkurs) at the Bauhaus in Weimar between 1919 and 1923. Born in Switzerland, Itten's early career was in primary school education but he gave it up to study fine art briefly at the École des Beaux Arts in Geneva. However, dissatisfied with the conservatism of the curriculum he went on to study mathematics and science at university before studying painting at the Stuttgart Academy from 1913 to 1916. Well aware of the avant-garde ideas of the Blaue Reiter and Cubism, he exhibited at the Sturm art gallery in Berlin. He then moved to Vienna to teach and paint at his own art school and, having been introduced to Walter Gropius by Alma Mahler (who was married to Gropius) took up a teaching post at the Bauhaus in 1919. In his classes he encouraged students to experiment with form, color, and texture but his commitment to eastern mysticism and the wearing of monk-like robes led to tensions with Gropius, the institution's director. Furthermore, in the difficult political and economic climate in early 1920s Germany Gropius came under increasing pressure to demonstrate the relevance of the Bauhaus in daily life. As a consequence, Itten's experiential and expressionist approach to creativity was increasingly at odds with Gropius' growing commitment to the machine aesthetic as a key goal of the Bauhaus's educational curriculum. On leaving the Bauhaus Itten studied philosophy in Zurich before setting up his own design school in Berlin from 1926 to 1931. He also became director of the technical school for textiles at Krefeld from 1932 to 1938. He left Germany, first working in Amsterdam and then moving to Zurich where he became the director of the Museum and School of Applied Arts from 1938 to 1953. From 1943 to 1953 he also directed the technical school for textiles and the Rietbergmuseum.
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