Johannes Itten

Born in Süderen-Linden in 1888, Johannes Itten trained as a teacher before developing an interest in psychology and methods of learning. In Vienna, where he moved in 1916, he founded a private art school and met Walter Gropius, who invited him to teach at the Bauhaus in 1919. Itten became one of the first masters responsible for the preliminary course, which shaped the school's approach to artistic education. His teaching incorporated Mazdaznan practices, mysticism and meditation, contributing to disagreements with Gropius that led to his departure in 1923. He then settled in Herrliberg, near Zurich, where he established an art school and a weaving workshop. In 1926 he founded another school in Berlin, which the Nazi regime forced to close in 1934. From 1932 to 1938, he directed the textile art school in Krefeld. In 1938 he returned to Zurich to lead the School of Applied Arts and, from 1943, also directed the city's textile school. From 1955 he devoted himself exclusively to painting. His book Kunst der Farbe was published in 1961. He died in Zurich in 1967.