General Session Speaker - Robert Hirschler

Robert Hirschler, Chair of the AIC Study Group on Color Education

Monday, June 8 at 10:15am

Bauhaus Influence on Colour Education: a Critical Homage

There are several articles, books and even doctoral theses on Bauhaus colour in spite of the fact that there has never been a “Bauhaus colour theory”. Colour courses at the Bauhaus started with Itten’s Vorkurs, colour was a part of the obligatory course. Later Klee and Kandinsky, then Moholy-Nagy and Albers also gave courses, but these were not coordinated. Albers remembers the subject of colour at the early Bauhaus as a “stepchild.” “We had very little color,” he remarked in a 1968 BBC interview, “real colour studies, in Itten’s course and in Klee’s and Kandinsky’s courses….” Although we find many references to colour theory also in Klee’s and Kandinsky’s writings, what gave true visibility to “Bauhaus colour” were two publications in the 1960’s. Itten’s The Art of Colour has already sold well over half a million copies world wide and it has been translated into 13 languages. It has, no doubt, even today the greatest influence on colour education in art and design schools, followed by Albers’s Interaction of Color. Most current textbooks on colour aimed at artists and designers quote these two among their sources, with some of them mentioning Kandinsky’s writings, but very rarely those of Klee. Moholy-Nagy and Hirschfeld-Mack are barely remembered for their work in colour education. Although the letter of Bauhaus colour may not be relevant anymore, the spirit has been carried on. After the Bauhaus had been forced to close its doors in 1933 former teachers and student continued to work in the spirit of the heydays both in Germany and abroad, establishing schools or at least courses based on the Bauhaus model. Many of the details of the colour theories expressed by the Bauhaus masters may have lost their relevance by now, but we must be grateful for these outstanding educators for their pioneering work.

Bio

Robert Hirschler has been actively involved in all aspects of color theory, color science and color technology since 1966. He graduated at the Technical University of Budapest in chemical engineering/textile chemistry. In 1967 he presented his first paper on computerized color matching and has been involved in colorimetry and color science ever since. His activities covered all fields of color applications, teaching colorimetry for textile engineers and principles of color for designers.

He has been involved in AIC activities for over 40 years. He is an active member of both ProCor (Brazil) and the Hungarian National Color Committee and a member of the AIC Executive Committee. Since 2010 he has been the Chair of the Study Group on Color Education,

His current research interest is the teaching of the basics of color science to architects, artists and designers as explained in his recent article “How much color science is not too much” published in the journal Color Research and Application.