Johannes Itten

Johannes Itten was born in Switzerland on 11 November 1888 and trained as an expressionist painter before joining the Bauhaus at Weimar in its founding years. Alongside Lyonel Feininger and Gerhard Marcks, he formed the core faculty under Walter Gropius, teaching the preliminary course that became legendary for its rigor. His theories on color—systematic, almost mystical—gave modern art education its vocabulary. He left the Bauhaus in the early twenties but continued teaching and writing in Switzerland. He died 25 March 1967, his color wheel outliving him in every design classroom on earth.