The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten, Based on His Book "The Art of Color": Amazon.co.uk: Johannes Itten: Books

Product Description

A useful simplification and condensation of Johannes ltten′s major work. The Art of Color, this book covers subjective feeling and objective color principles in detail. It presents the key to understanding color in ltten′s color circle and color contrasts.

From the Back Cover

BY THE SAME AUTHOR: Color Star Johannes has long been considered the definitive color theorist of the twentieth century. His books on color theory and application are standards throughout the world. Now his Color Star helps designers explore a myriad of harmonious colors. The Star consists of eight stencil like disks that can be placed over Itten's color wheel. Designers and artists can selectively examine the relationships of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors by using this unique system. Cool and warm values, complementary colors, and different hues and intensities can all be compared individually, as the designer uses the stencils to see the stencils to see only the wanted colors while masking the rest of the wheel. The Color Star is a useful and innovative tool for everyone who works with color, including students graphic designers, industrial designers, advertising designers, artists, illustrators, color theorists, interior designers, and architects.

Design and Forum

This is the most complete document of one of the landmarks of modern education in art-the famous Basic Course at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany. Itten was the teacher who organized it at the invitation of Walter Gropius. First published in 1963 when Itten was still alive, the book has been revised and updated by Itten's widow, Anneliese Itten and includes new material from the basic course at the Bauhaus, as well as visual examples and descriptions of the refinements made by Itten in later courses in Berlin (1926-1932), Krefeld (1932-1938), and Zurich (1938-1960). The basic course at the Bauhaus was designed as a trial to judge students with varying education, to help them in their choice of a career in the arts, Each of the over 200 illustrations reproduced is described in detail to help the reader understand the purpose of art teaching. The student's original works include studies if nature, pure forms and abstractions, three-dimensional work, and projects in the applied arts. In addition the book includes exciting material on the evaluation of modern art education. The book has universal appeal for a basic course as a means for individual creative growth and it can be used today by students and art teachers as a foundation for their own basic courses.

The Art of Color Nearly 160 full-color charts, diagrams, and paintings illustrates this first publication of the color theories of the famous Bauhaus teacher and painter. Both the physical and emotional nature of color is studies. The seven basic color contrasts are examined in detail, and clarified with 28 full-color reproductions of painting masterpieces, from the stained-glass art of Chartres to the glowing canvasses of Picasso and Klee. The psychological, symbolic, and intellectual effects of color are explored in detail. Included also are an exposition of compositional order, a discussion of color effects in nature, and valuable demonstrations of techniques for bringing two or more colors harmoniously together.

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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Easy to read,lots of information,a good guide to colour 22 Jan 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Once picked up this book is very hard to put down. A shortened version of his exceedingly brilliant book 'The Art of Colour'.Every page is full of interesting facts about colour.Itten is very knowledgeable about art as well as colour and it's implications in painting as well as other areas of our lives. If you ever wanted to know anything about colour and why it has such an effect on us and our surroundings then this is the book for you, but beware after reading this book you may want to buy the full version, I do!

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Elements of colour 8 Mar 2009

By Mrs. Amanda Northey-damms

If you are at all interested in learning about colour for the purposes of designing/painting etc, then this is the book for you. Not a light read but very informative for the serious student.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Insight into how colours affect us 6 Dec 2009

By art gives me a high

"The Elements of Colour" is a treatise on colour based on the work of Johannes Itten. Itten taught at the Bauhaus in the 1920s where colour theory had a major impact on art and design. Itten's fellow teachers at that time included the painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.

Itten put great emphasis on his students getting the feel of a colour and the impact of each colour in combination with other colours - for example - when two colours appear next to each other. Whilst Itten is writing for students of art and design his approach is very scientific and has much wider application. Each colour has a specific "physical" attribute - the frequency of the vibration - but the feeling it invokes lies beyond the eye and the sensory organs.

The Elements of Colour