Palette shot

WEEK 5: self-directed 3 week projects

Come to class next week ready to present your proposal for your 3-week project. You should also have a painting completed (or at least very-well underway) to share with the group. Your project should be comprised of a group of 3-5 paintings, conceptually or thematically linked. The 2nd half of class next week will be a studio session, so please be prepared to paint. I will also schedule a figure model for those of you that would like to incorporate life painting into your projects. If you have any questions regarding your project ideas please be in touch.

Also: read "The Wise Old Man and the Young Giantesses" Gilles Neret on Henri Matisse

Go to Barnard library and check out art books that you are interested in and bring them to class.

LIAM GILLICK–ASSIGNMENTS ARE HOMEWORK

Assignments are homework. They remove the responsibility from the cultural producer to devise their own context, and create an artificial power relationship to replace the real power relationship between student‐artist and older ex‐student‐teacher‐artist. The assignment replaces the potential for real work and real recognition of power dynamics. The assignment allows the student to avoid taking responsibility for his or her own critical awareness and replaces that with a set of directed “potentials” that are actually rehearsals for future instructions from various powers, i.e. galleries, institutions, and various “clients,” all of which are in direct conflict with the potential of art. Therefore I do not give assignments, I don’t acknowledge work done as an assignment, and I don’t find them funny. 

POSTED NOVEMBER 20, 2013 TO NON ASSIGNMENT

0 COMMENTS 1 NOTES

MICHELLE GRABNER–NO ASSIGNMENT: THE MEDIUM OF INDIRECT TEACHING

Only dead fish follow the stream.

—Finnish expression

The most effective and trustworthy “assignment” I have honed over my twenty years of teaching studio arts is simply: NO ASSIGNMENT as a form of indirect teaching.

A “no assignment” method does not guarantee a Socratic debate, yet it does cultivate critical thinking while eschewing the authority of the teacher and rebuffing the pedagogical misadventure of assessment outcomes.

Critically, indirect teaching emphasizes the weight of work, supporting self-directed knowledge that is shaped by the limits and freedoms of the student and the institution. Work and assessment are the responsibility of the student.

Week 4: FIVE STUDIES

Again, building off of one of your daily observations in your sketchbook, make 5 small compositional and material studies of the same subject for a painting. Feel free to paint FROM the object/scene if you desire, or to DIVERT from it -- whichever mode you prefer. The sizes of your studies should vary between 9"x12" or 16" x 20" and you should experiment with a variety of surfaces-- cardboard, wood, paper, canvas, etc. At least 1 study should employ the collage technique from class, and at least 1 should demonstrate an understanding of relative value and tone. 2 of your studies should be 2nd generation iterations of your subject, i.e. studies of a study... so for instance, your 4th and 5th studies should build off your previous versions. Your work should also demonstrate a variety of experiments in composition, mark-making, and degrees of abstraction. Prepare a painting surface for our next class and we will use this to execute a painting from your studies in class.

ISA GENZKEN @ MOMA

Please post your thoughts about the Isa Genzken show here in the comments! Think about how this show relates to or informs your understanding of the Boris Groys essay we read, and please talk about at least one work in particular that we saw. Below is also a link to the NYTimes review of the show, which may be helpful to bounce some of your own ideas off of and to help you recall certain works in particular.

http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/288

NYTimes Roberta Smith review

Columbia

Greetings all,
I have chosen on focusing the Broadway and Amsterdam lit alley way at Columbia University to make my observations for the class. This walkway can be seen as festive, as commanding, as amusing, and a stage for learning. It illustrates people's sense of accomplishments and discovery. It is very photogenic.

WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT:
Beginning today, try to avail yourself to visual observation as much as possible during the course of your everyday life. A shadow with a particularly strong coloration, an unusual impression in the snow, a piece of foil on the ground that catches your eye, something mundane you see constantly that appears suddenly different... Basically anything you notice. At some point in the day --each day--record your observations in your sketchbook. These notes can be either expository or visual in nature (aka words or drawings). Make a painting that recreates, recounts, or otherwise interprets one of your observations. Consider whether it is a flat or dimensional quality you are after and use the physicality of the paint to enhance this effect. 

Please post one of your observations to this blog in whatever form you see fit.

ALSO READ AMY SILLMAN INTERVIEW.

WEEK 3
Zen Buddhist Calligraphy Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8L3PDeWL8 (up until the martial arts scene...)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCp5z7E7Nmg (starting at 3:00 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNQ6dh4yda8

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Nude in front of a mirror, 1910.