Summer 2024
Dates: 8 classes from June 11th - July 30th (+ optional end-of-class trip to the Met in August)
Time: Tuesdays from 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Location: 608 80th St, Brooklyn NY 11209
Tuition: Sliding scale from $200 - $1,200 (more information below)
Max Number of Students: 8
Interested in participating?
Because there are a limited number of seats, please fill out the application below by May 25th. You will receive a notification of acceptance by June 8th.
About
Course Description
The materials of painting include both the physical medium (paint, surface, and ground) and the history of painting as a concept throughout time. This course aims to develop both the technical hand skills needed to manipulate the medium and a working knowledge of the rich tradition of painting to give painters and lovers of painting the foundation to make, criticize, and appreciate historical and contemporary artworks.
The progression of this course is organized around a Western historical narrative of art. This is by no means the correct or the only place to start, but I begin teaching here because knowing this narrative makes the contemporary art environment intelligible and gives us the tools to take a critical attitude toward it, should we so choose. That being said, the goal of this course is to create a community to discuss both the practical and theoretical aspects of art, so alternative definitions, functions, and narratives of art are welcome!
No prior painting experience is required–––only a love of painting and a desire to engage in rigorous but playful practice and discussion.
Course Elements
Lectures covering theoretical and historical information
Practice in the form of exercises and projects that develop hand skills
Encouraged Independent Practice that reinforces techniques and concepts learned in class
Optional Field Trips to museums or galleries
Optional Readings if you want to go deeper in any area
Tuition
Tuition is a sliding scale of anywhere from $200 - $1,200:
- $200 is scholarship-level tuition for those who can’t afford higher tuition. It covers the cost of rental space and instruction.
- $600 is general-level tuition, which aligns with the cost of non-degree art classes in NYC. At this level, the teacher gets paid for time spent preparing lectures, setting up, teaching, and cleaning up.
- $1,200 is supporter-level tuition, which supports the wider community university project, making it possible to expand class offerings, rent more classroom space, host residency programs, and more.
*Note: Paying tuition is a commitment to attending the entire course. There will be no tuition refunds after the start of the course.
Syllabus
Subject to change
Date | Lecture Topic | Practice | Independent Practice (encouraged but optional) | Readings (optional) |
6/11 | Introduction: Course philosophy, material info, elements of art | Simultaneous Contrast value scales
| Contour Line drawings (blind and continuous) | After the End of Art (Chapter 1), Arthur Danto |
6/18 | Before Art and its Beginning: Egyptian, Byzantine “Art” and the Renaissance | Stetch and Gesso Canvases
Black and White Still Life Painting | Negative and Positive Space Sketches of Still Life Paintings | |
6/25 | N/A | Black and White Still Life Painting (con’t) | Composition Analyses of Masterworks | |
7/2 | Color: In Theory and In Practice | Color Wheel | Simultaneous contrast exercises from Alber’s The Interaction of Color | The Interaction of Color, Josef Albers |
7/9 | Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Modernism | Painting alla prima (all at once) using a color system | Five contour drawings of objects | Art, Clive Bell |
7/16 | Cubism | All-Over Composition Drawing | The Algerian Women and Picasso at Large, Leo Steinberg | |
7/23 | Abstraction, Art as Art | All-Over Composition Color Painting | Toward a Newer Laocoön, Clement Greenberg; | |
7/30 | Surrealism, Dada, Readymades, and the End of Art | Independent Painting and Exhibition of Work | Art and Objecthood, Michael Fried | |
TBD | Met Meet-Up |
About the Instructor
Anna Gregor is a painter, writer, and art educator based in New York City. She earned her BFA in 2019 at Parsons The New School for Design (New York, NY) and is currently pursuing her MFA in Painting at CUNY Hunter College (New York, NY). Gregor’s work has been exhibited in two solo shows (Visions and Revisions at Moira Fitzsimmons Arons Art Gallery (Hamden, CT) and Embodiments, Tomato Mouse (Brooklyn NY)) and various group shows. She teaches art and art history to high schoolers at Fusion Academy Upper West Side and to adults through Fractal University. In her free time, she enjoys reading aesthetic philosophy and writing about art. Her work can be found at atgregor.com and on Instagram under @anna_t_gregor.