Art 281 Painting 1

ART 281 PAINTING I

FALL SEMESTER, 2002
MW 10:00-11:50
Prof. George Roland Office: A206, Doane Hall
Office hours: M 3:30-4:30, T 11:00-12:00, 3:00-4:00, TH 11:00-12:00, 3:00-4:00, or by appointment
Phone: 332-3382 (office), 332-4313 (computer studio)
Email: groland@allegheny.edu
Web site: http://webpub.allegheny.edu/dept/art/PaintingWebSite/PaintingHome.html

Introduction
  This is a first painting course. It is designed for students who have no prior experience in a painting course at the college level. It is developed around the idea that to become an artist/painter, you have to make paintings and you have to develop an awareness of painting's history. Developing interesting and informed artistic ideas and the know-how to make paintings are the primary goals of the course.
  Art 281 will introduce you to the basic materials and processes of painting with acrylics or oils. You will learn to prepare canvases, panels and other supports for painting. You will learn how to use and care for brushes and other painting tools. You will become familiar with a palette of basic colors, learn color contrasts, vocabulary and the spatial properties of color. You will learn different ways to compose effective painted images. You will learn several methods for applying paint to build an image. Simple methods of framing finished paintings will be introduced if time permits.

Projects and other assignments
  A series of projects will be done in the class. Each project will help to develop your perceptual and conceptual awareness of painting as an art form, and your ability to use paint as an expressive medium. Discussions and critiques of these projects will develop your critical abilities for evaluating your own and others' work. Projects are organized around themes, but are sufficiently flexible to allow you to develop individual solutions.
   From time to time, short papers or oral presentations may be assigned. Papers should always be submitted typed, double-spaced. (See pp. 348-360 in A Writer's Reference, 4th edition, by Diana Hacker for the correct form.) In grading papers, I always grade both content and form, so spelling, correct punctuation, etc. do count!
   A required field trip will be scheduled during the semester to an area museum. Here you will have the opportunity to study first hand many aspects of painting you have learned from actual masterworks. A class painting project and an artist report will be based on the museum trip.

Attendance Policy
  Attendance is crucial to success. Your work will show little growth without intense, sustained effort. You cannot "make up" lost time. I allow three unexcused absences per semester. Once those three "free" absences have been used, each additional unexcused absence will lower your final grade one degree (from B- to C+, for example.) Attendance will be taken. If you are more than 10 minutes late or leave early, you will be counted absent. Keep me posted if you are absent due to College-sponsored activities, illness or other reasonable causes.

Work Expectations
Outside work is required. Substantial in-class time will be taken up with discussions, critiques, slide presentations, etc. I expect you to work at least six hours per week outside of class on a regular basis. Keep up with your work. Complete paintings in time for critiques as the due dates are established. After final critique and grading, if additional work is needed on a project, it must be done outside of class so you can keep up with in-class work. Paintings reworked after crits will be welcomed at later crits.

Grading
There will be no final exam for this class. Your final grade will be based on your overall performance in the class. Factors taken into account in grading include the following: 60% Averaged painting grades and the museum-artist paper. 40% Class participation indicated by preparation, completion of assignments on time, intensity of involvement, contributions to class discussions and critiques, oral assignments, short papers and other opportunities. Projects will be collected for grading on the due date. Late projects will receive one letter grade lower. You may rework a project to try to improve your grade, but only if it was handed in on time originally. Redone projects must be submitted within one week after you receive them and must be accompanied with the original grade/comment sheet.

Suggested Reading
Materials and techniques for painters:
Kay, Reed. The Painter's Guide to Studio Methods and Materials. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1983.
Mayer, Ralph. The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. New York:Viking Press. 4 ed.
Woody, Russell O. Painting with Synthetic Media. New York: Reinhold. 1965. (at the Meadville Public Library)

Composition:
Acton, Mary. Learning to Look at Paintings. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
Bethers, Ray. Composition in Pictures. New York: Pitman Pub. Corp. 1949.
Goldstein, Nathan. Design and Composition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1989.
Goldstein, Nathan. Painting: Visual and Technical Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1979.
Loran, Erle. Cezanne's Composition. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1946, Edition 2d.
Puttfarken, Thomas. The Discovery of Pictorial Composition: theories of visual order in painting 1400-1800. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000.

General Histories 20th Century Art:
Haftmann, Werner. Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York: Praeger 1961.
Hughes, Robert. Shock of the New. New York : Knopf, 1991.
Hunter, Sam and John Jacobus, Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall; New York: Abrams, 1985.

Art Since Mid-century:
Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940-Strategies of Being. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995.
Kurtz, Bruce. Contemporary Art 1965-1990. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1992.
Sandler, Irving. Art of the Postmodern Era. New York: Icon Editions, c1996.
Taylor, Brandon. Avante-Garde and After: Rethinking Art Now. New York: Abrams, c1995.
Wallis, Brian, ed. Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art; Boston: D.R. Godine, 1988, c1984.
Wheeler, Daniel. Art Since Mid-Century: 1945 to the Present. New York: Vendome Press: Distributed by Rizzoli International Publications, c1991.

Histories of Individuals and Movements:
Alloway, Lawrence. American Pop Art. New York: Collier Books, 1974.
Barr, Alfred. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1946 esp. pp. 53-93.
Barrett, Cyril. Op Art. New York: Viking Press, 1970.
Battcock, Gregory. Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968.
Cabanne, Pierre. Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
Daix, Pierre. Cubists and Cubism.
Diehl, Gaston. The Fauves. New York: Abrams, 1975.
Dube, Wolf-Dieter. Expressionists and Expressionism. New York: Skira, c1983.
Fry, Edward F. Cubism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978, c1966.
McEvilley, Thomas. The Exile's Return: toward a redefinition of painting for the post-modern era. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Meyer, Ursula. Conceptual Art. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1972.
Milner, John. Mondrian. New York: Abbeville, c1992.
Rubin, William S. Dada Surrealism and Their Heritage. New York: Museum of Modern Art; distributed by New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Conn., 1968.
Sandler, Irving. The Triumph of American Painting: a History of Abstract Expressionism. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.
Seitz, William C. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America. Cambridge, Mass: Published for the National Gallery of Art, Washington, by Harvard University Press, 1983.
Seitz, William C. The Responsive Eye. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1965.
Tomkins, Calvin. Duchamp: a Biography. New York: Henry Holt and Company, c1996.
Zhadova, L. (Larisa). Malevich. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1982.

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