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©
Johannes Itten, VEGAP, Madrid
Johannes Itten

Group of Houses in Spring

1916
Oil on canvas.
90 x 75 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
602
(
1962.2
)
Room 37
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 54 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 55 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 56 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku Rodin Exhibition room

The Swiss Expressionist painter Johannes Itten, who had trained in Berne, arrived in Stuttgart to study with the painter and theoretician Adolf Hölzel in 1913 and soon afterwards became a teacher of some of Hölzel’s students. In 1916 he set up his own school in Vienna and in 1919 began to perform an important educational role at Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus.

The present work on canvas, entitled Group of Houses in Spring, depicts a number of buildings on Gansheide, a wooded hill near Stuttgart where the painter had rented a small house with a garden, which he also used as a studio. Although undated, it would appear to have been executed in 1916 judging by a comparison with a similar drawing made that year and published in Vienna by the historian Hans Tietze.

Itten produces a composition steeped in an abstract rhythm of forms and colours which, on the one hand, shows his interest in his master Hölzel’s colour wheel and in the way colours affected people both psychologically and spiritually and, on the other, reveals his intention to apply the compositional principles of music to painting. This aim is clearly stated in the March 1916 entry in his diary: “I am also going to try to find a style as far as colour is concerned. A painting organised around the simple emphasis Cold-Hot or Light-Dark or Behind-In Front or Transparent-Opaque. Through it, and without the need for anything else, I would achieve powerful expression. Then I could introduce a second voice as accompaniment. Only the principal melody should remain safeguarded.”

Paloma Alarcó

20th Century20th Century - European painting. ExpressionismPaintingOilcanvas
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Group of Houses in Spring. Grupo de casas en primavera, 1916
Group of Houses in Spring
Johannes Itten

©

Johannes Itten, VEGAP, Madrid

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The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from VEGAP (www.vegap.es), or from the corresponding collective management organization in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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Group of Houses in Spring. Grupo de casas en primavera, 1916
Group of Houses in Spring
Johannes Itten

©

Johannes Itten, VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from  VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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