Spring Leaves: An Art Class with Johannes Itten and Yi Jing
Broad-thinking artist Johannes Itten designed the long-enduring curriculum of the Bauhaus School.
This article was adapted from my unpublished nonfiction: “The Will to Style: Radical Utopians of the Weimar Bauhaus, 1919-1925.” The original source was Georg Muche (1895-1987). Muche had replaced Itten as the teacher of the “Basic Course,” at the Weimar Bauhaus, before he went to work for him at his school in Berlin, around 1929. -ts
For today’s art class, Johannes Itten introduced his students to a visiting guest teacher named Yi Jing, a traditional Japanese painter from whom Itten himself was eager to learn.
Yi Jing was accompanied by two women, each dressed according to the longtime traditions of their creative medium. Framing the artist and his space, his assistants bowed low, acknowledging Master Yi, who stood at his two tables — a small and large one. Adhering to long-established ritual, the women moved around the workspace with great reverence, as one might walk in a sacred temple. Without speaking, they unfurled paper from a roll on the larger table; they measured and cut it, then turned their attention to the smaller table.
The master’s first brushes emerged from their hulls as the women leaned each brush against a small stand, lining them up in a row. At one side, a white bowl was filled with water. White porcelain dishes were rubbed clean with a damp cloth. Into these quiet dishes the women spooned the colors, powdered paints they’d made themselves. Not a word was spoken as they laid out paper, ink and tools in anticipation of the artist’s work and need. The students watched, almost forgetting to breathe as the two women performed this ancient Japanese ritual of creating an artist’s space.
Dressed in his formal clothing — a monk’s cassock, much as Itten once liked to wear — Yi Jing stood away from the table. His eyes were closed to fend off distraction as the two assistants bowed again and, leaving the table to him, waited in the background. Only now did the master step forward. He spoke to his translator, who addressed the group.
“What would be your wish?” he asked.
The students looked at each other. Speaking for them, Itten left the choice of subject to the artist himself.