Art 161 - Visual Concepts
Visual Concepts is an introductory studio course that exposes you to methods and materials used by artists from the Renaissance to the present. The work will involve traditional and nontraditional approaches to representation and abstraction, and investigate such problems as appropriation and the media, symbolism, narrative, temporality, and site specificity. We will begin the course with western Renaissance perspective and figurative based drawings and sculpture. We will then explore the influence mechanical reproduction has had on art from the 15th century to the present using block printing. With a project in bookmaking that parallels the ideas of filmmaking, we will consider the effects of optics on visual culture. A construction based on the modernist notion of “form follows function” will expose you to modern architecture. The final project this semester will be based on the artist book and poem by John Ashberry "Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror.” Your final work will cover issues of collaboration, installation and gifting in contemporary art. Each studio exercise is designed to introduce you to the visual language inherent in all art forms. Technically, you will have rigorous training in drawing with various tools, sculpting in wire, block printing, book/map construction and sculptural construction. Visit the course website.
