Computer
Art Spring 2001
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Course Description
Computer
Art is a second-level studio course in electronic imaging. Students
will learn the fundamentals of contemporary visual art using the
computer as a palette and a tool. Weekly assignments and in-class
workshops will help students build a vocabulary necessary to speak
through the language of visual art. These basic elements will
be discussed in relation to many forms of contemporary art, focusing
on, but not limited to, digital images.
Requirements:
Throughout this course, we will be using Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe
Illustrator, and Macromedia Freehand for image manipulation. Proficiency
in PhotoShop is essential.
Lectures and Links
to Class Assignments The
use of LINE in visual art
Artists: Carl Andre, Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Marcel Duchamp, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Helen Frankenthaler,
Alberto Giacometti, Philip Guston, Jenny Holzer, Richard Long,
Agnes Martin, Jackson Pollock, Rembrandt van Rijn, Robert
Smithson, Vincent Van Gogh.
Assignment #1 LINE
use 50+ lines of varying thickness/style.
LIFE
DRAWING/CONTOUR DRAWING - the Portrait
Artists for line drawing: Alexander Calder, Keith Haring, Giulio
Paolini, Egon Schiele
Artists for portrait: Francis Bacon, Chuck Close, Hans Holbein
the Younger, Van Gogh, Alex Katz, Henri Matisse
Assignment
#2 SELF-PORTRAIT USING
A MIRROR AND A MOUSE (blind contour drawing)
POSITIVE/NEGATIVE
SPACE
Artist: Georges Seurat
Assignment
#3 POSITIVE/NEGATIVE SPACE
- Redraw a Seurat charcoal drawing, include tonal value strip
COLOR
Artists in chronological order: Georges Seurat, Vasily Kandinsky,
Josef Albers, M.C. Escher, Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz,
Morris Louis, Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Tony
Cragg, Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman, James Turrell
Assignment
#4 COLOR use Albers'
optical illusions to create color effects.
COMPOSITION
Artists: Milton Avery, Jennifer Bartlett, Jacques-Louis David,
Edgar Degas, Georges de La Tour, Vassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian,
James Whistler
Assignment
#5 COMPOSITION Use the
Vermeer painting to copy and recreate using a new composition.
SCALE
and SURREALISM
Artists: Francis Picabia, Giorgio DeChirico, Joan Miro, Jean Arp,
Max Ernst, Man Ray, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Meret Oppenheim,
Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo, Charles Ray also Jan Svankmajer.
Assignment
#6 SURREALIST SELF-PORTRAIT
reverse your head with two animals and two backgrounds.
CONTEXT
Public Art: George Rickey.
Installation Art: Kiki Smith, Bill Viola, Christian Boltanski
Site-Specific Art: Gordon Matta-Clark, Krystof Wodiczko, Christo
and Jeanne-Claude
Performance Installation Art: Joseph Beuys, Ana Mendieta
New Genre Public Art: Suzanne Lacy
Assignment
#7 CONTEXT (site-specific)
CONTEMPORARY
CARTOONS
Comics Artists: R. Crumb, Larry Marder,Scott McCloud, Jason Lutes,
Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco
Assignment #8 CONTEMPORARY
CARTOONS
FORMAT
= MEANING (Posters, billboards, postage stamps, mail
art)
Artists: Guerrilla Girls, Felix Gonzalez-Torres,
Raymond Johnson
Assignment #9
SCALE
COLLABORATION
IN VISUAL ART
Artists: Judy Chicago and the Making of the Dinner Party, Gilbert
& George, Marina and Ulay Abramovic, Doug and Mike Starn, Steina
and Woody Vasulka
Assignment #10
COLLABORATION
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