Johannes Itten's Farbenkugel from Utopia (1921)
For our next webinar on August 27, multidisciplinary Texan artist Michael Mentler will speak on The Colour Circle at the Bauhaus and Beyond. Please help us to spread word of this event by sharing our posts on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Colour Society of Australia , or by passing on the following link to your friends, colleagues and students: https://coloursociety.org.au/event-5373807.
Clockwise from top left: Werner Drewes (1899-1985), Wassily Kandinsky, Johannes Itten and Paul Klee. Image credits: Smithsonian Archives of American Art (Drewes) and Wikipedia.
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 a form. - Johannes Itten
Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul. Wassily Kandinsky
Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet. Paul Klee
During his studies at Washington University in Saint Louis in 1964 to 1970, Texan artist Michael Mentler became a protégé of one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, German painter and printmaker Werner Drewes, and a disciple of Bauhaus design. Drewes (1899-1985) had studied at the Bauhaus in 1921-22 under Itten, Klee, and Feininger, and again in 1927 under Moholy-Nagy, Kandinsky, and Feininger, and had been one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school in the United States. In his presentation Michael will share with us his recollections of Drewes and Drewes' insights into the teaching of colour at the Bauhaus, as well as his own insights into such topics as the diverse functions of colour circles, the evolution of Itten's colour circle from Hoelzel through to its 1960's manifestation, and the links between the Bauhaus and De Stijl.
Michael Mentler
Michael Mentler's creative journey has covered a polymathic array of artistic endeavors, and he is well known as a master painter, sculptor, draughtsman, designer, and teacher. He studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, at Washington University in Saint Louis, and at the School of Art Institute in Chicago. As well as winning over a hundred art awards including several "Best of Show" and Gold Medals from some of the worlds most distinguished juried venues, his work has featured in an array of magazines including Art Direction, American Artist Drawing, Communication Arts, and Graphis, and in such books as Lessons in Classical Drawing by Juliette Artistides. Michael has also made his mark in the visual communication world with industry lauded campaigns for Ralston Purina, Anheuser -Busch, Seven-Up, and many other Fortune 500 companies. Last but far from least, Michael is well known as an inspiring teacher who persistently challenges the art world to see beyond the surface. Renowned painter Richard Schmidt once called Michael "a modern day Leonardo." Find out more about Michael at his website at https://michaelmentler.com/
This webinar is free but registration is essential and limited to 100 participants worldwide, so early registration is advised. Successful registrants will be notified by reply email and will be sent the link and instructions to join the webinar on the Zoom platform shortly before the event. To receive this email with the Zoom link, you must register by the deadline of midnight AEST on Friday August 25th.
If you're a non-member unable to attend live but would like access to a temporary link to the recording of this webinar, please do not register but send a request for access to csa.nsw.chair@gmail.com by August 25. (CSA members have permanent access to the recordings of all our webinars).
