Painting has been around for centuries and has reinvented itself several times. In an age of digital visual culture, it occupies a unique position. Choosing for painting is choosing a slow medium with a particularly rich tradition and contemporary potential.
The Academy’s Painting programme is situated at the interface between professional skill and personal artistic experience. Starting from a profound knowledge of the rich history of painting, students are encouraged to develop their own visual language under the guidance of a team of professional and experienced artists. Fellow students also have a crucial role in this.
The painter’s studio is the natural habitat where this process comes about, complemented by our unique landscape internships where we dynamically try to redefine the practice.
In the first two years the studio work is largely based on observation. Think of observation drawing and painting exercises on ‘classical’ genres such as still life, model, portrait and landscape. This study offers various points of connection with the work of the great masters of yesterday and today. It offers an inspiring framework from which (or against which) one can discover and develop one’s own visual language step by step.
In addition, the social context in which works of art are created and shown plays an important role. In this way the student learns to analyse and critically filter images. We pay a lot of attention to informing and documenting the artistic process, and also to showing the work in individual presentations or group exhibitions.
In the third year, the student develops a personal pictorial research in which he or she is mainly guided individually. Theoretical support takes place in the lessons research methodology, art history and art theory.
At the end of the master year, each new master of painting is able to create a fully-fledged artistic project that bears witness to his own point of view and a professional presentation. The master of painting is ready to enter working field as an independent visual artist or set up collaborations in the cultural field.