Itten, Johannes

* November 11, 1888 - † May 25, 1967

biography

Itten, Johannes (1888-1967), Swiss painter, graphic artist, art theorist and art educator. He was born in Thun and studied education in Bern from 1904 to 1912. From 1913 to 1916 he was a student of Adolf Hölzel at the Stuttgart Art Academy and from 1917 to 1919 he ran his own art school (Itten School) in Vienna. From 1919 to 1923 he taught artistic design at the Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1923 he moved back to Switzerland, where he dealt intensively with philosophy and mysticism. From 1926 to 1934 he ran a private art school in Berlin. In 1938 he became director of the applied arts school and the applied arts museum in Zurich, in 1943 also of the textile school and in 1949 of the Rietberg Museum for Non-European Art.