Flames 1961

Johannes Itten made this small watercolour drawing called Flames, but who knows when? He's really having a conversation with materials in this one: the tooth of the paper, the way the watercolour bleeds. It’s like he let the materials do their thing, kind of surrendering to the medium. Look at the surface, the way he layers colours, the orange melting into the blue. It’s less about depicting actual flames and more about capturing the feeling of heat and light. The vertical marks, some dense with detail, others just ghostly stains, create a rhythm that's both chaotic and calm. There's a nod to artists like Paul Klee in the way he balances abstraction with a hint of representation. But Itten adds his own spin by emphasizing the act of making. It’s like he’s saying, hey, art’s not just about the final image, it’s about the journey of getting there, the push and pull between the artist and the materials.