Born in Central Switzerland in 1880, Johannes Itten for most of his life was a teacher from 1904 onwards, working at increasingly prestigious schools such as Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich which is the largest art school in Switzerland. But his most famous tenor was that at Bauhaus. From very early on in his teaching career he became interested in psychoanalysis. He would never attempt to correct individual students' techniques of fear of ruining their creativity or dampening their creative spirit, instead correcting general mistakes he'd notice a larger group of the class making. To make these corrections less personal, but no less important. He taught and developed ideas on contrast by Hue, contrast by value, temperature, complements, and saturation. In short he taught students to command and understand color.

He was a follower of an American cult known as Mazdaznan. (likely having been recruited at Lebensschule in Herrliberg near Zurich Which) Mazdaznan is the belief that the earth should be returned to a garden-like state in order for humans to talk to god. So he was a bit of a peculiar man who due to these beliefs was a vegetarian and would practice breathing exercises, reject traditional medicine in favor of traditional medicine, would only wear crimson robes and shaved his head.

This important because his beliefs became an issue after some students began joining the cult at Bauhaus due to holding him in high regard and being influence. This drove a wedge between him and other members of faculty at Bauhaus which lead to his resignation. Which was much to the Joy of members such as Walter Gropius; who wanted to move the school more towards the direction of embracing mass-production. Itten's replacement in 1923: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was uncoincidentally very in-favor of mass-production, constructivism and fusing art with modern technology.

Johannes Itten was the first to associate color pallets with four types of people, all of which he associated with a season. His ideas were picked up by the fashion and cosmetic industry, his ideas became immensely more well-known and accepted after his death.