seven contrasts by Johann Itten

1. Johann Itten’s Seven Color Contrasts
When choosing your colors remember the attributes of color we have
utilized in our paintings thus far (value/hue/saturation and
contrast/modulation/assimilation). We will be using these blocks as the
subjects for our next painting, so keep this in mind when creating your
designs and color combinations in order to make sure you will have a
dynamic painting. Do not just choose random colors and random stripes,
really plan this out.
Johann Itten’s Seven Color Contrasts may be useful in developing your color
plan.

2. In the mid 1900s, Johannes Itten developed a
new kind of color wheel that changed the way
color was seen, influencing artists and
designers right up to the present moment. The
Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany was home to
many artists whose influence is still felt today
in the worlds of art and design. It was there
that Itten developed his book, "The Art of
Color,"which was the definitive compilation of
what was taught in the Basic Course which
Itten oversaw, at the Bauhaus.
At the Bauhaus, Germany's unequalled artists'
mecca in the early part of the Twentieth
Century, Itten taught his students about color
harmony, which to him meant more than simply
appreciating colors shown together with similar
chromas, or different colors in the same shades.
"Harmony implies balance, symmetry of forces,"
he writes, and goes on to say that such a
balance would be expressed when the colors
used together would produce not another color
(such as when mixing yellow and blue to
produce green) but when the colors mixed
together produced gray. This was because
"medium gray matches the required equilibrium
condition of our sense of sight," he writes.
But Itten also discovered that color harmony is
quite individual, and that an individual will, if
given free reign and a little knowledge, find his
or her own "subjective colors."

8. Results from the fact that for any given color the eye
simultaneously requires the complementary color
and generates it spontaneously if it is not already present.
The simultaneously generated complement occurs as a
sensation in the eye of the beholder, and is not objectively
present.
Simultaneous Contrast

9. Simultaneous Contrast

12. Robert Swain, Untitled, 10 x 31, 2014, 10 ft x 31 ft, Acrylic on Birch Panels.
“Over the decades, Swain has organized 4,896 hues into a vast system. To make a painting, he selects a range of colors
and deploys them in gradated sequences. Following a row of color-blocks across the surface we watch as, step by subtle
step, a cool color becomes warm. A low-keyed color becomes bright. Degrees of saturation--color intensity--modulate.
Interweaving these shifts in hue, brightness, and saturation, Swain brings the surface to life.” Carter Ratcliff
Some additional ideas about selecting color.

13. Seeing the Attributes of Color
The goal of our first assignment (utilizing found hues) is to
begin to identify color, and understanding how to organize
hues into groupings.
Understanding how to see value, hue, and saturation (a.k.a.
chroma) is the key to utilizing color to create space and,
inevitably, to carry content. In your own practice, these basic
principles may be utilized to help the viewer focus on a
particular part of your subject, to heighten narrative, amplify
mood, and to create subtlety or obscurity.

14. Tetrads
A second reading on color is included in the ‘Readings’ folder in Module #1. If you need additional
ideas for grouping color check out Chapter 3 of Basic Concepts: Organizing the Experience of
Color.