Mein Vorkurs am Bauhaus: Gestaltungs und Formenlehre. ( Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus) (1963) Johannes Itten
In this book, Itten describes the legendary basic design teachings he developed for the Bauhaus in Weimar, which he later refined at his art school in Berlin, at the Höhere Fachschule für Textile Flächenkunst in Krefeld and at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. The foundation of his teaching is the view that aesthetic effects are created by contrasts, e.g. high–low, thick–thin, smooth–rough, much–little etc. (cf. pp. 9–12). The artistic resources that Itten explores through contrast studies are: the light-dark, colours, materials and textures, objective forms, rhythm, expressive forms and subjective forms. Itten structures his exercises according to the following sequence of phases: experiencing (erleben) – recognising/objectifying (erkennen/objektivieren) – being able to/creating (können/gestalten). Specifically, Itten’s concept leads to the following exercises, among others. Material and texture studies (pp. 34–61): touching different surface textures with closed eyes in order to feel their specific haptic-tactile quality (experience); assembling material remnants of varying texture into sculptural formations in order to study the effect of texture contrasts on them (recognise); reproduce different textures in other media (e.g. watercolour or charcoal drawing) (create). Form studies (pp. 62–97): recreate the three basic shapes square, triangle and circle in physical movements and thus feel them inwardly (experience); experiment graphically, painterly and sculpturally with lines, surfaces and bodies in order to examine the resulting effects – especially those of the different proportions (recognise); produce pictorial representations of effective combinations of forms (create).
Kai Bucholz
Hochschule Darmstadt
Johannes Itten. Mein Vorkurs am Bauhaus: Gestaltungs- und Formenlehre. Ravensburg:Maier, 1963 (engl. Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus. Translated by John Maass. London: Thames & Hudson, 1964)