Are you interested in popular culture? Do you want to explore the contexts and histories of mass media, or otherwise distinctly “un-fine” art? Do you want to make work about your interests that come from unexpected places? Do you see yourself in work that explores and appreciates the detritus of culture? Do you want to walk the line between fine art and fanart? This class may be for you.

This course uses critical theory, creative assignments, instructor feedback, and group critique to help students interrogate popular culture as a subject matter for their work. In addition to this interrogation of subject matter, students will also be prompted to question their materials, and explore the notion of “lowbrow” art mediums. This course is designed to assist students in navigating their work in areas that may feel off-limits or against the traditional “rules” of artmaking.

Students will be given a single, short, required reading each week, with recommended texts and reading as an option for students to further explore. There will be group crit/discussion every week, for both completed assignments and in-progress feedback.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00 - $100.00

Elective

You start with sketching a nude model, move onto a grisaille, then a glaze. This is the “traditional” Western understanding of rendering a figure. In this course, we strive to embark on a journey far away from the western academic approach to figuration. Specifically in reference to the representation of Queer and BIPOC bodies in visual art. Throughout the duration of the semester, this course will examine alternatives to these traditional painting practices by discussing artists and artistic movements whose practices expand our conception of figurative work. Bouncing from Hendricks Heerschop’s Koning Casper (1659) all the way to the This Meant Nothing (2021) series of embroideries by Sophia Narrett, we will take a broad overview of marginalized identity present in art. The course will involve material investigations through maquettes, embroidery, and painting. These material investigations will be accompanied by readings, discussions and presentations. The melding of studio work, theory and art history will nurture an expansive archive and discussions surrounding the politics of representation, identity, and artistic process. By the completion of this course students will further develop their own ideology behind the figuration they choose to indulge in. Students will create their artist manifesto solidifying the ethos behind their work, as well as providing a presentation of their final artwork in support of their argument.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $20.00

Elective

In this course, we will examine the diary and the obsessive observer. These themes will be framed as preliminary sources for creating a series of paintings. Instincts like documenting, revealing, unearthing, appropriating, intervening, spying, etc are all methods of cultivating meaning that will be investigated throughout the course. We will have discussions about different approaches to these sorts of ideas, and the different ethical dilemmas that accompany them. Importantly, we will consider ways artists gather information online and in public spaces, and ultimately where public and private may blur. Some artists we will focus on are Sophie Calle, Anais Nin, Adrian Piper, and Laurel Nakadate as well as artistic movements such as Fluxus, New Media, and other contemporary niches.

Throughout the wintersession, students will maintain a diary or journal that will guide them in making a series of 4 paintings. The coursework will include in-class exercises, alongside slide lectures, readings, and class discussions. Students will use the series of paintings and their journal to deepen existing interests in their practices.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00 - $100.00

Elective

This graduate level wintersession studio course will be comprised of two external faculty that are professional artist working in the field. Activities will include studio visits, lectures by each visiting critic, group-critique, potential field trips, all in direct engagement with graduate student practice. It will culminate a final critique at the end of the five week session. 

This course is open to second-year Painting Graduate students.

Elective

Painting from Observation will be a team taught Schedule A and B marathon for 6 credits. Drawing, collage, printmaking and painting will introduce students to contemporary painting as practised by the RISD Painting Department. This course is a comprehensive introduction to painting. It is designed to develop confidence and experience with paint and painting. We will examine historical and contemporary trends and paint from life models and photo sources. Fundamental techniques for basic ground preparation, oil painting mediums and direct as well as in direct processes will be taught. Representational painting will be the primary focus but experiences in abstract painting will also be encouraged. We will learn abstract principles that organize composition, depict spatial illusion and describe form while developing a shared language for critiques. No prior painting experience is required.

Elective

This is a hands-on course, designed for advanced painting students who are fascinated by color, surface, transformation and alchemy, DIY processes, craftmanship, invention, and the stuff of paint. It is for those who are eager to dive deep into all sorts of materials, methods and techniques. The objective of the class is to arm students with the tools and resources to figure out how to make what they imagine and to expand their practice through material exploration and information sharing. With an emphasis on experimentation, play, research and development; advanced students explore, problem solve and implement specific grounds, paints, supports, mediums and tools into their own practices. The level of specialization and expertise students may eventually desire for their work could require seeking the advice of paint manufacturers, conservators, fabricators, other artists or even experts in other fields. How to identify and acquire knowledge outside of one's comfort zone, approaching and finding a common terminology with peers and specialists is also a part of this course. Relevant art historical and contemporary methodologies, techniques and materials will be presented. Environmental Health and Safety guidelines that apply to painting practice and painting studio safety will be an integral part of this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

Museums are stewards of history; the present moment is radically testing the role museums play as storytellers while also challenging how and for whom historical narratives are told. The colonial history of this region was profoundly shaped by an industry built on the systematic hunting and harvesting of whales, driving entire species to the brink of extinction. Located just 35 miles east of Providence, the New Bedford Whaling Museum tells this story and offers a challenging look into the great sacrifices made in order for American industry and culture to thrive. Through several visits to the New Bedford Whaling Museum this course asks students to reflect upon and interpret a wide range of interrelated subjects, objects, and their shared histories and relationships to both humans, whales, and the environment. From folk art to nautical culture, from colonial economies to subsistence hunting, and from natural history to curatorial practice, through research, students illuminate the stories the ocean has to tell us about ourselves so that our recognition of the past may help guide us towards a more sustainable future. With enhanced access to museum archives students address these topics with research-based projects employing a range of fine art media with specific attention to contextualizing within different modes of museum display. The New Bedford Whaling museum boasts a rich collection of unique and unusual artifacts, issuing a cautionary tale, and asking visitors to contemplate the tenuous line between the pursuit of profit and the destruction of that which is most sacred.

Elective

This first-year graduate seminar approaches painting as a technical skill, a historical practice and an intellectual project. Weekly sessions begin with group discussions of key readings about recent painting. Readings are organized in three sections. The first looks backward, to the problem of medium that preoccupied modernist painting and, residually, contemporary practices until the 1980s. The second section looks at the academy, the institution and the art market, and their effect on how painting is produced, disseminated, discussed and received. The third, the most speculative, looks laterally at a range of contemporary practices and their cultural frameworks from the 1990s to the present. Frequent studio visits will occur and drive some of the reading and discussion.

Please contact the instructor for permission to register. Preference is given to Graduate Painting Students.

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. Lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. Lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

The work intensive studio course will involved students in an intense visual, aesthetic and theoretical discussion around the historical relationship of Cinema to Painting and Arts Culture in general and move on to the analyze the current embodiment of Cinema's more conflated and confounded, co-dependant relationship to the Art's of today, tapping into the cross-pollination resulting of imagery, politics and theory's as they apply. Each class meeting will involve studio work and discussion and culminate with a film screening. The film screenings will move forward from Cinema's very beginnings to a few of today's best Indie films. The concentration of the course will be assigned painting projects that will be direct responses to the films being screened and related critiques of these projects as they pertain to the films and the applicable supplemental literature, allowing the discussion around Cinema, cinematic and art critical theory and the Art culture to be transferred to the students individual works thus allowing for the work to be seen in a larger context.

Elective

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

The purpose of this course is to continue development based on Painting I. Individual expression will be encouraged through a series of larger works which require greater time and organizational skill. Experimentation in different painting media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media will be encouraged. Group and individual critiques are required. Outside work will be assigned.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

The purpose of this course is to continue development based on Painting I. Individual expression will be encouraged through a series of larger works which require greater time and organizational skill. Experimentation in different painting media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media will be encouraged. Group and individual critiques are required. Outside work will be assigned.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

The purpose of this course is to continue development based on Painting I. Individual expression will be encouraged through a series of larger works which require greater time and organizational skill. Experimentation in different painting media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media will be encouraged. Group and individual critiques are required. Outside work will be assigned.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting