Intermediate Painting Intensive: Conditions for Visual Inquiry (PAI4217.01)

Ann Pibal

What strategies do artists use to efficiently develop an initial idea? How does one sustain and contextualize a meaningful, vital, creative inquiry? How can a direct connection be made between daily life and making images, and between the personal, and public or political worlds?

This intermediate level course will address these questions through an intensive immersion into the studio and investigation into the design of strategies for generating a vital visual inquiry. Students will be asked to engage with a series of structures, arrangements, and approaches to visual thinking. These frameworks, or conditions, will be both found in the world, and also designed by students themselves, both through individual activity and through collaboration. Examinations of the ideas, artworks, and approaches used by a wide-ranging group of artists from art history and contemporary art will provide a platform on which investigations will be based.

Emphasis on the development of an awareness of vantage-point will be a central priority when discussing the work of others, priority will be placed on the establishment of inclusive classroom norms, and issues of power and subjectivity in the history of academic studio critique will be presented through reading assignments and in discussion.

A high level of commitment is expected; students will focus on the development of an ambitious painting practice, and dedicate themselves to strengthening their skills and awareness of their own priorities as artists. Students should expect regular reading, writing, and assigned research.

Although students will be asked to respond to questions presented in class, and specific assignments will be given throughout this course, it is the objective of this class to provide the skills necessary for the student to confidently pursue self-designed projects.


Learning Outcomes:
- Experience of ambitious, fully dedicated engagement with studio practice.

- Increased sophistication with ability to contextualize individual studio work verbally and in writing.

- Increased ability to participate constructively in collective energy and shared responsibility for a supportive group learning environment.

- Focused practice with inclusive classroom conversation particularly as it pertains to the discussion of the artwork of classmates as well as to the analysis of contemporary art.

- Increased ability to become constructively self-critical and to incorporate feedback of others into analysis of one’s own studio work.


Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites: Previous successful completion of one 2000 level painting course at Bennington (Form and Process, or Materials and Methods,) and permission of instructor through application process. On or before May 10, 2022: Interested students should send an email with (INTERMEDIATE PAINTING) in the subject line outlining, their interest in the course, and how this course relates to their Plan of study.
Corequisites: VALS: Suggested, not required.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
M 1:40PM - 5:20PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 16
Course Frequency: Once a year

Categories: All courses , Fully In-Person , Painting
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