Studio of Painting 1
The relativization of the notions and genres of art in the 20th century resulted in many coexisting parallel artistic practices and expressions. If we try to understand the art of (not only) our age, it is obvious that artists do not only create forms and colors, but that they primarily create a meaning, a sense of things. This situation forms the frame of our curriculum, which is oriented toward the deepening, making aware of, and making more accurate the diverse forms of expression: students must ask themselves how art should be made in the context of their intentions and why it should be made, so that they understand what is being created. Although the department focuses mainly on painting and the variety of its expressive possibilities and means in the context of contemporary art practices, it is conceived as an open platform on which students can experiment with other media, techniques, and materials. The department should represent a ground for searching new ideas, approaches, and means in inciting the tension and confrontation of students’ different individual approaches. Diversity and variety should be developed without preferring a certain style or expressive means. Critical discourse and confrontation both in the form of group and individual discussions, and analyses of students’ works based on formal, content, and contextual aspects form the fundamentals of the curriculum.
Our aim is to make students aware of the essence of their own art making and to make them able to reflect it, formulate it, and to further develop it creatively. By opening themselves to all possible influences, students should familiarize themselves with the widest and deepest possible perspectives, in matters of technique and technology, as well as in matters of art history and philosophy.
Besides encouraging students to learn independently, the curriculum also encompasses visiting and analyzing current exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and projects involving guest artists or professionals from other disciplines, both from the Czech lands and abroad; it includes cooperation across departments both within the FFA and with other art colleges and importantly, it stimulates students’ initiatives in exhibiting and traveling.