JOHANNES ITTEN AND PAUL KLEE
curated by Monika Schäfer and Christoph Wagner
Martin Gropius Bau
Niederkirchnerstrasse 7 - Berlin
24/4/2013 - 29/7/2013
Johannes Itten and Paul Klee made their mark in the history of 20th century art with theories of colour that were as important as they were conspicuous. Both proceeded from the assumption that the order of colours was logically structured as a self-contained cosmos. New sources show that both artists referred to the same intellectual sources, some of them esoteric, and inspired each other. Both developed their ideas about colour in the course of decades of reflection and work and applied them liberally in their art.
In its presentation of about 170 works – including paintings, drawings and graphics – the exhibition takes a fresh look at two leading representatives of Classical Modernism in the German language area. In chronological order and grouped into five main stages, the exhibition shows key works by Johannes Itten and Paul Klee, the focus being on their artistic use of colour.
In each case different aspects are brought to the fore, such as Colour and esotericism, Colour aura, Colour harmony, Colour and abstraction, Colour and nature, Division of colour.
For the first time it can be shown that not only did Klee inspire Itten, but Itten also inspired Klee, and that both drew on common sources. The lives and careers of these two natives of the canton of Bern intersected on several occasions: While Johannes Itten received his first artistic encouragement from Paul Klee's father, Paul Klee’s appointment to the Weimar Bauhaus was largely due to Johannes Itten. Both artists began their lifelong preoccupation with questions of the theory of colour and the ordering of the colour cosmos at almost the same time, in 1914/1915: Klee during his trip to Tunisia, Itten under the impression of the theory of colour developed by Adolf Hölzel in Stuttgart. Both artists observed each other’s work over years at a time and also swapped individual works.
All the more surprising, one might think, that Johannes Itten and Paul Klee have never before had an exhibition devoted to just the two of them.
Biographical asymmetries may be responsible for this: Klee joined the Weimar Bauhaus in 1921 and Itten left it in 1923, not long afterwards. Itten did not return to Switzerland until 1938. Paul Klee died in 1940, while Johannes Itten was to outlive him by more than twenty-five years. Itten’s monumental publication on the art of colour only appeared in 1961, and for a long time thereafter little was known about the development of Itten’s reflections on colour over the preceding decades.
This situation has been changed by the discovery of new sources among the posthumous effects of Johannes Itten, thus enabling the chronology and the stages of his ideas on colour to be reconstructed on the basis of the brilliantly coloured pages of his diary. Both exhibited at Herwarth Walden’s gallery “Der Sturm” in the Berlin of the 1920s. Between 1926 and 1934 Johannes Itten ran his Itten school at 14 Konstanzerstrasse in Berlin – another reason for mounting the exhibition in Berlin.
curated by Monika Schäfer and Christoph Wagner
Martin Gropius Bau
Niederkirchnerstrasse 7 - Berlin
24/4/2013 - 29/7/2013
Johannes Itten and Paul Klee made their mark in the history of 20th century art with theories of colour that were as important as they were conspicuous. Both proceeded from the assumption that the order of colours was logically structured as a self-contained cosmos. New sources show that both artists referred to the same intellectual sources, some of them esoteric, and inspired each other. Both developed their ideas about colour in the course of decades of reflection and work and applied them liberally in their art.
In its presentation of about 170 works – including paintings, drawings and graphics – the exhibition takes a fresh look at two leading representatives of Classical Modernism in the German language area. In chronological order and grouped into five main stages, the exhibition shows key works by Johannes Itten and Paul Klee, the focus being on their artistic use of colour.
In each case different aspects are brought to the fore, such as Colour and esotericism, Colour aura, Colour harmony, Colour and abstraction, Colour and nature, Division of colour.
For the first time it can be shown that not only did Klee inspire Itten, but Itten also inspired Klee, and that both drew on common sources. The lives and careers of these two natives of the canton of Bern intersected on several occasions: While Johannes Itten received his first artistic encouragement from Paul Klee's father, Paul Klee’s appointment to the Weimar Bauhaus was largely due to Johannes Itten. Both artists began their lifelong preoccupation with questions of the theory of colour and the ordering of the colour cosmos at almost the same time, in 1914/1915: Klee during his trip to Tunisia, Itten under the impression of the theory of colour developed by Adolf Hölzel in Stuttgart. Both artists observed each other’s work over years at a time and also swapped individual works.
All the more surprising, one might think, that Johannes Itten and Paul Klee have never before had an exhibition devoted to just the two of them.
Biographical asymmetries may be responsible for this: Klee joined the Weimar Bauhaus in 1921 and Itten left it in 1923, not long afterwards. Itten did not return to Switzerland until 1938. Paul Klee died in 1940, while Johannes Itten was to outlive him by more than twenty-five years. Itten’s monumental publication on the art of colour only appeared in 1961, and for a long time thereafter little was known about the development of Itten’s reflections on colour over the preceding decades.
This situation has been changed by the discovery of new sources among the posthumous effects of Johannes Itten, thus enabling the chronology and the stages of his ideas on colour to be reconstructed on the basis of the brilliantly coloured pages of his diary. Both exhibited at Herwarth Walden’s gallery “Der Sturm” in the Berlin of the 1920s. Between 1926 and 1934 Johannes Itten ran his Itten school at 14 Konstanzerstrasse in Berlin – another reason for mounting the exhibition in Berlin.
