He mentioned a person who developed very strong theories on colour and I thought that he had been going to speak about Josef Albers whose book on colour theory is fascinating (Interaction of Colour -1963) and whose colour studies such the various 'Homage to the Square' pieces are wonderful, but particularly when seen 'for real':However, this was not who he meant. The person in question was Johannes Itten and at the time I was sure I had heard his name before and upon digging a bit I remembered that I had read about him in a book with tthe glorious title of :
Now you may think that this is just another populist art book but there is actually a good deal more to it than that, not least in chapters on conceptual art and Arte Povera, and for someone who was unfamiliar with the intricacies of the isms of modern art it is a good introduction. Will Gompertz has been art critic with the BBC.
I read all sorts about art.
Anyway back to Johannes Itten. It was in this book that I discovered his connection with the Bauhuas but that his teaching methods brought him into conflict with the more rationalist approach of Gropius. He did, howver produce one thing that really got my attention and it was a way of pictorialising the colour circle with attendant secondaries in a way I had never seen before:
What always amazes me about these diagrams is the arbitrary decisions on the primaries - but lets face it art is subjective -n'est-ce pas?
Sorry about all that - a bit of a self-indulgence, but just one final thing about the book - what attracted me to the review I read was a picture of the map inside the front cover -
The modern movements and artists as the stations - Ok it's a bit gimmicky but if it would get people past money and Hirst, might it not be worthwhile?
Rant over -todays episode
The Spot Diary
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