vorkurs

i’m really taken by the vorkurs, the preliminary course at the bauhaus. i think all the bauhaus students were graduates of other art schools, but the back-to-basics approach seems to be suitable for the self guided study i’m doing. so i’m going to follow some of the exercises and examples laid out in itten’s books design and form: the basic course at the bauhaus and the art of color : the subjective experience and objective rationale of color.

i’m a little unsure about trying to follow an art foundation without input from teachers or peers, so i found itten’s aproach very reassuring. when the bauhaus first opened it had no heating, so in the winter of the first year students only attended one morning’s lectures a week:

The rest of the time the students worked individually at home on the tasks assigned to them, and without correction. This enforced self-reliance was not without significance to a student in ‘finding the sources of his own self’. Cramming a student with irrelevant knowledge and not giving him enough time for taking stock of himself forms an obstacle to personal growth.

itten: design and form

chiaroscuro
colour
texture
forms
rhythm