ART 375 - Advanced Painting: Light, Embodiment, and the History of Seeing

This studio/seminar course treats light as both a technical problem and a conceptual framework: illumination, visibility, perception, atmosphere, exposure, shadow, and the politics of seeing. Students will develop advanced painting practices through sustained studio work, guided technical lessons, and seminar-style discussion spanning the history of painting (from early modern strategies of light to contemporary and expanded painting). Emphasis is placed on articulating one’s process and style, building a repeatable studio methodology, and understanding embodiment as painting-how attention, gesture, breath, and movement shape both mark and meaning. Weekly meetings combine demos, discussions, close readings, and critique. Students work across a range of painting media, with structured studies (value, edge, temperature, glazing, optical mixing) feeding larger project-based works. Written assignments support conceptual clarity and formal decision-making through process documentation, short critical responses, and an artist statement rooted in visual analysis and material research.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): ART 172, ART 174, ART 274, or ART 372
Instructional Method: Lecture-conference-studio
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 2 times for credit.
Notes: Enrollment limited to 15.
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts).