Student Showcase: Language of Painting and Painting Deconstructed

This exhibition features student work from two courses in the Department of Art, both led by Visiting Critic Eric Hibit.

ART 2201, Language of Painting, is an introduction to understanding how the embodied process of painting can create meaning and resonance and provide possibilities of expression where words are not sufficient. Through a focus on color theory and pictorial composition, students explore ways to build their own visual vocabulary while gaining technical facility and knowledge of materials and processes.

ART 3299, Painting Deconstructed, examines and dissects the various conventions of painting. Each assignment takes on one or more fundamental conventions of painting and considers what occurs when you do without it. Students analyze the rectangular shape of the support, flatness, continuity, framing, verticality, the use of paint, and having an individual maker for each painting. Paintings are both objects and images. This is very powerful at a time when virtually experiencing the world around us is becoming the norm. How can the elastic and timeless potential of painting be harnessed today? The course provides a historical framework for deconstructing painting while questioning what one gains from pushing against painterly conventions.