The Bauhaus and German Modernism

Hmm, Bauhaus...Bauhaus...I'd heard of Bauhaus before...then it came to me, the Bauhaus I'd heard of wasn't the Bauhaus we'd be learning about today. The Bauhaus I'd heard of was the 1978 English Rockband, however they did name themselves after what we'd be looking at in today's lecture which was the Bauhaus German Art School- the greatest art school...in the world (I hope you read that in the voice of Jeremy Clarkson) 

ANYWAY, Bauhaus was founded in April 1919, in Weimar, Germany. The art school was operational from 1919 to 1933 and it combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It was founded upon the idea of creating a "'total' work of art" in which all the arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together.  The Bauhaus movement had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in all categories of art and design.

Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school.  From 1919 to 1922, Itten taught at the Bauhaus, developing the innovative "preliminary course" which was to teach students the basics of material characteristics, composition, and color.

Itten was heavily influenced by painters, Adolf Hölzel and Franz Cižek. His work has become majorly influential in the fashion industry, particularly the seasonal colour analysis. 

Below are some examples of Itten's work: