Composition in Orange and Blue-Green 1957

Johannes Itten made this watercolour painting, Composition in Orange and Blue-Green, using a patchwork of rectangles. You can feel the hand in the slight variations, the soft bleeds of color – the process is laid bare. There's something deeply satisfying in how the colours interact. Look at how the blues and greens pool like water, yet the oranges glow with warmth. It’s like he’s playing with opposites, creating a visual push and pull. The rectangles aren’t perfect, some are a little wonky, a little off, and that’s what gives the piece its charm. This reminds me of Paul Klee, another Bauhaus artist who was interested in the expressive potential of colour and form. Like Klee, Itten invites us to see the world not as it is, but as it could be – a playful, colourful abstraction. There is an openness, as though he is inviting us to complete it, to find our own harmony within the composition.