Intermediate Drawing: Beyond Representation (DRW4103.01)

Beverly Acha
In this intermediate drawing course students will expand on basic representational drawing skills through the investigation of the ways drawing is interdisciplinary, intersecting with painting, sculpture, printmaking, and performance. For inspiration along the way we will study artists who work in interdisciplinary ways including: Ana Mendieta, Mirtha Dermisache, David Hammons, Nam June Paik, Trisha Brown, Charles Gaines, William Anastasi, Richard Long, Francis Alys, Kazuo Shiraga, John Cage, Yoko Ono, Marina Ambramovic, Do Ho Suh, and Adrian Piper.
This course invites you to investigate how drawing might influence, support, and/or expand your larger artistic practice by giving you space to investigate new processes and ways of working. You will be invited to explore ideas that are meaningful to you, which means that self-motivated students excited to take risks, experiment, challenge themselves, and push their work into uncharted territory will thrive in this course.

Projects will encourage you to find your own answers to questions and drawing problems posed. Expansion of your drawing skills through experimentation with (and the invention of) tools, techniques, and non-traditional drawing materials is strongly encouraged. Out of class work will include four art-making projects and one research project/presentation about an artist. In class time is divided between drawing prompts, group critiques, slide lectures, discussions of assigned readings, and possible visiting artist lectures and/or visits to regional museums or artist studios.

Some of the questions we will consider: What is drawing? In what ways can drawing go beyond mere visual representation? In what ways can a drawing go beyond image? How is drawing a way of thinking? What is the relationship between materials, process, and concept in a drawing? How does my direct tactile experience of a material change the way I make marks, draw, think, and see? How does the source of my idea change the outcome of a drawing? How do I bring the ideas I’m passionate about into my work in ways that are visually, conceptually, and materially compelling?


Learning Outcomes:
- Expand basic representational drawing skills and expand the definition of drawing
- Develop a personal sense of how drawing can support and/or expand an artistic practice
- Further develop individual drawing practice through open ended prompts
- Investigate the ways drawing is interdisciplinary, intersecting with painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance
- Investigate different methodologies, criteria, and processes for making a drawing
- Develop the ability to talk about your own work and that of others through critique and writing exercises


Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
One 2000 level Drawing course at Bennington. Preference will be given to students that have also taken at least one other course in a different VA discipline (Sculpture, Painting, Video etc) or another creative field (Dance, Writing, Theater, Music etc). Please complete this form to be considered for the course.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
M 1:40PM - 5:20PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 14
Course Frequency: Once a year

Categories: 4000 , All courses , Drawing , Four Credit , Fully In-Person
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