The Influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on the Legacy of the Bauhaus

This paper addresses three color theorists of the Bauhaus and their connection to a single historical source, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It begins with an overview of the Bauhaus and a brief chronology of the school, and then moves into a description of Goethe’s work, primarily Theory of Color. I then discuss Wassily Kandinsky, his writings in Concerning the Spiritual in Art and From Point and Line to Plane, and his impact on the other teachers of the Bauhaus. The third chapter addresses Johannes Itten’s book. The Art of Color, and his influence on the Bauhaus and its students through his introductory course, the Vorkurs. The final chapter discusses Josef Albers, a Bauhaus student-turned-teacher and painter, who taught at Black Mountain College for over twenty years and wrote interaction of Color, I attempt to connect them using Goethe’s psychological and physiological color classifications, as well as establishing a physical link between them. I propose that Goethe’s focus on the beholder rather than the color itself carried through to the work of Kandinsky, Itten and Albers, and attempt to establish this through their writings as well as their work