Johannes Itten, from The Art of Color

Color is life, for a world without color seems dead. As a flame produces light, light produces color. As intonation lends
color to the spoken word, color lends spiritually realized sound to form. Harmony implies balance, symmetry of forces.
- Johannes Itten, from The Art of Color
From 1919 - 1922, Johannes Itten developed and taught courses on color theory to students at the School of Applied
Arts in Weimer, Germany, or better known as the Bauhaus, the infamous German art school of the early twentiethcentury. Initially trained as an educator with an interest in psychoanalytic theory, Itten utilized these ideas into
developing his theories on color composition and the relationships of color which became the foundation of his book,
The Art of Color (also found in The Elements of Color). In the book, Itten proposed that not only was color experienced
and understood visually with such considerations as the 12 Hue Color Circle and the Seven Color Contrasts, but also
psychologically and emotionally.
While Itten’s ideas on the role and function of color were concentrated and developed within the structure of painting,
these same theories can be applied to developing a visual vocabulary and use within the context of color photography.
Below are some useful considerations from Itten’s The Art of Color that suggest the possiblities of developing a color
sensibility and color harmony in photography - a visual relationship and structure between colors that are capable of
serving as a basis for composition and revealing content.
Color Impression
Colored light reflected from colored objects modifies the colors of other objects.
Full Light……………
Medium Light …………………………
© William Eggleston (left); Joel Sternfeld (middle); Paul Graham (right
Shadow
Color Altered or Varied in 5 Modes
© Mark Rothko
Hue - name and properties/mixture of a color that enables it to be perceived
Brilliance - how light or dark a color is
Saturation - the level and mixture of white, black, grey or complimentary included in color
Extension - proportions of color
Simultaneous - shifting of colors to complementary
Color Agent and Color Effect
Color Agent is the physically or definable colorant.
Color Effect is the psychophysiolocgical color reality.
Color Expression
Color is not only experienced and understood visually, but also psychologically and emotionally.
© Gregory Crewdson (left) and Philip-Lorca diCorcia (right)
12 Hue Color Circle
Yellow
Yellow is the color of sunshine. It’s associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow produces a warming
effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy.
Shades of yellow (when gray is added) are visually unappealing because they lose cheerfulness and become dingy.
Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealous.
Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.
© Philip-Lorca diCorcia (left), William Eggleston, (middle) and Nan Goldin (right)
Red
Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well
as passion, desire, and love.
Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.Dark red is associated with
vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.Brown suggests stability and denotes
masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.
© Philip-Lorca diCorcia (left) and William Eggleston (right)
Blue
Passive from the point of view of material space. Always cool and shadowy. Atmospheric.
Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom,
confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
When dimmed, blue suggests fear, grief, and perdition.
Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
© Richard Misrach (left); Stephen Shore (middle); and Alec Soth (right)
Green
Intermediate between yellow and blue. Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and
fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety.
If the green inclines towards yellow, an energetic sense of nature is felt. Activated by orange, it assumes vulgar cast.
If it inclines towards blue, cold and vigorous aggressiveness.
Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, jealousy and is also commonly associated with money.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.
© Cindy Sherman (left) and Stephen Shore (right)
Orange
Mixture of yellow and red. Maximum radiant activity and solar luminosity. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the
tropics.
Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement,
and stimulation.
Orange is the color of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.
Suggests a range from festive to when whitened, a loss of character. When diluted with black, declines into dull and
withered brown. By lightening the brown, beige tones achieved suggesting warmth and quiet atmospheric quality.
Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes
high quality.
© Edward Burtynsky (left) and Joel Sternfeld (right)
Violet
Violet combines the stability of blue and the energy of red and is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility,
luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance.
Violet is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic as well as chaos, death and
exaltation.
Solitude and dedication in blue-violet. Divine love and spirituality in red-violet.
Light violet evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark violet evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.
© Christian Patterson (left); Tim Davis (middle); and Mitch Epstein (right)
Seven Color Contrasts
Contrast of Hue
Light - Dark Contrast
Cold - Warm Contrast
Complementary Contrast
Simultaneous Contrast
Contrast of Saturation
Contrast of Extension
Contrast of Hue
At least three (3) clearly differentiated hues are necessary.
Some obvious combinations include:
© William Eggleston
Light - Dark Contrast
Strongest expressions of light and dark are the colors white and black.
The effects of of black and white are in all respects opposite, with the realm of of grays and chromatic colors between
them.
Difference between level of brilliance and illumination. Obscured v. Revealed.
Yellow and Violet have the strongest light - dark contrast.
© Alec SothCold
- Warm Contrast
Contrast that is both physical and psychological.
Red - orange represents is at the warmest range of colors, while blue - green is at the coolest.
Cold - Warm properties can be described as: shadow / sun ; transparent / opaque ; sedative / stimulant ; airy /
earthy ; far / near ; wet / dry.
© Martin Parr (top right) and Gregory Crewdson (bottom right)
Complementary Contrast
Two colors are called “complementary” when mixed together they produce a neutral gray.
Complementary colors are opposite each other on the Color Wheel.
Analogous colors are any three colors which are side by side on a 12 Hue Color Wheel.
Some examples of complementary colors
include:
© Christian Patterson (left); William Eggleston (middle); and William Christenberry (right)
Simultaneous Contrast
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 complementary color occurs as a sensation in the eye of the beholder, and is not
objectively present. It cannot be photographed.
Contrast of Saturation
Relates to the degree of purity of a color. Contrast between pure, intense colors and dull, diluted colors.
Pure colors may be diluted in four different ways:
Color diluted with white
Color diluted with black
Color diluted with gray
Color diluted by a mixture of corresponding complementary colors
© Stephen Shore
Contrast of Extension
Involves the relative size of two or more areas of color. It is the contrast between large and small areas.
Colors may be assembled in areas of any size, but the proportion between two or more colors may be said to be in
balance or harmony so that no one of the colors is used more prominently than the other.
© Christian Patterson (left); Martin Parr (middle); and William Christenberry (right)
Click on the following link, Adobe Kuler, to activate a web-based application for viewing color relationships and color
contrasts. Click on Create to view color wheel.
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