https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111317625-011 Burkhard Meltzer Breathe In, Breathe Out Johannes Itten and East Asia Breathe in, Breathe out – as simple as it sounds at first, Johannes Itten’s calli- graphic drawing from 1922 implies a complex cosmology. A “pendulum” and “soul of the world” 1 is being breathed here, as the calligraphy paraphrases Ba- roque German mysticist Jakob Böhme (1575–1625). Oscillating between yellow, red, and blue, it seems as if the poem’s three-dimensional architecture of individ- ually crafted letters is breathing the respective colour spectra itself. Crowned by a clock face, a heart-shaped pendulum rests at the centre of the calligraphic im- age, while two birds in the lower corners indicate a circular movement. Cosmo- logical oneness appears to emerge from directing one’s attention towards the oth- erwise subconscious physical agency of breathing – an agency that connects one organism to other, possibly distant spheres. Suggesting that these forces might be empowered by extra-terrestrial influences – such as an “angel’s breath” – It- ten’s imagery spans across distant regions of space and time. What could (and has often) been read in terms of a purely esoteric, possibly anti-modern position, is related to standardized magazine typefaces at the same time – not unlike the ones that had been re-used for dada collages. In the early nineteen-twenties, the artist’s personal cosmology is connecting colour and composition studies of ancient art works with theosophical, mystical, and philosophical sources from Europe and Asia. Although such a set of cosmo- logical references was also popular among artist colleagues like Paul Klee, Was- sily Kandinsky, or Sophie Taeuber, Itten’s transcultural apparatus appears quite unique. Drawn a few months after continuing conflicts and, finally, a resignation letter to Bauhaus director Walter Gropius, Breathe in, Breathe out marks a distinct interest in combining systematic analysis and cosmology – unlike Gropius who favoured the former as key skill for the future Bauhaus curriculum. Before being appointed as director of the Kunstgewerbeschule and museum Zurich in 1938, Itten had established his own pedagogical initiatives in Berlin and || 1 Johannes Itten, “Kalligraphie. Weihnachten 1922”, in: Willy Rotzler and Anneliese Itten (eds), Johannes Itten. Werke und Schriften, Zurich 1978, 73. Transl. by the author. || The publication of this article is supported by the subject area Visual Communication at the Zur- ich University of the Arts.