Art Studio: Painting: Color and Invention

Exploration of the role of color in painting. Projects will foster comprehension of color vocabulary and a critical understanding necessary for the effective use of color. Prerequisites: ARTS 1010, ARTS 1011, ARTS 1014, ARTS 1100, or ARTS 1400.

Prereqs enforced by the system: ARTS 1010, or 1011, or 1014, or 1100, or 1400; SART, AHST, ARTE majors only during the first week of registration;  CAS ARTS , ARTH minors only for the following 3 days; Non-CAS minors for the following 2 days; then all restrictions will be removed; Minimum sophomore standing. PACE students with permission and override. Fee: $310.00

From the perception of color phenomena to cultural and historical use of color in art and design, this class offers students a visual vocabulary and critical understanding for expressive and communicative use of color. In the studio we’ll begin by creating a color design portfolio of iterative solutions to various color ‘problems’ drawn from the seminal Interaction of Color course and folio of Joseph Albers. From there we’ll expand and apply those ideas to groups of paintings with experimental, cultural, and visual premises. All studio projects in this class work exclusively with abstract and non-objective painting and design modalities. Color and Invention is therefore a class about the uses and limits of abstraction, and we’ll study and present the work of contemporary and historical artists using color and abstraction towards different conceptual ends. Taken together, the class will challenge your visual acuity, analytic skills, craft in design and painting, sense of play and experimentation in the creative process, all while offering a broader context for understanding painting and color in the present day.

Expect a brisk pace and a challenging, but accomplishable, amount of work. The university defines a credit hour as “two hours of outside class work for each hour in class or equivalent.” (Source) As we officially meet 4 hours per week in class, you can expect 8 work hours outside of class each week, making for a total of 12 hours each week in and out of class. This includes painting itself, participating in the class critiques, preparing materials, reading, studying content, and documenting your work for presentation.

Each project will have stated learning objectives and the works are evaluated on the degree to which the objectives were practiced in the paintings. A rubric will be provided at the start of each project. In General evaluations include the following: PAINTINGS: 60% PARTICIPATION: 30% SELF REFLECTION: 10%