* ART 1111a or b, Visual Thinking  Staff

An introduction to the language of visual expression, using studio projects to explore the fundamental principles of visual art. Students acquire a working knowledge of visual syntax applicable to the study of art history, popular culture, and art. Projects address all four major concentrations (graphic design, printing/printmaking, photography, and sculpture). No prior drawing experience necessary. Open to all undergraduates. Required for Art majors.  HU  RP
HTBA

* ART 1514a or b, Basic Drawing  Staff

An introduction to drawing, emphasizing articulation of space and pictorial syntax. Class work is based on observational study. Assigned projects address fundamental technical and conceptual problems suggested by historical and recent artistic practice. No prior drawing experience required. Open to all undergraduates. Required for Art majors.  HU
HTBA

* ART 1516b, Color Practice  Anoka Faruqee

Study of the interactions of color, ranging from fundamental problem solving to individually initiated expression. The collage process is used for most class assignments.  HU  RP
TTh 9:25am-11:20am

* ART 1530a or b, Painting Basics  Staff

A broad formal introduction to basic painting issues, including the study of composition, value, color, and pictorial space. Emphasis on observational study. Course work introduces students to technical and historical issues central to the language of painting. Recommended for non-majors and art majors.  HU  RP
HTBA

* ART 2520a, Beyond Likeness: The Painted Portrait  Matthew Watson

This intermediate-level course offers an in-depth exploration of portrait painting that brings together material, perceptual, and conceptual inquiries. Through a series of focused modules, we examine portraiture not merely as likeness, but as a practice shaped by the physical conditions of paint, processes of mediation, and the social meanings projected onto faces and bodies. We ask: what constitutes a “portrait” today, how do we engage another person’s presence, and in what ways does painting itself structure this encounter? Students develop paintings through a variety of approaches to portraying the face, including live models, working from mirrors, self-generated images, and sources derived from visual culture at large. Slide lectures, readings, and written reflections provide conceptual frameworks that support and enrich studio practice. While in-class workshops build technical skills and visual strategies in oil painting, the course ultimately supports self-directed projects in which students develop their own methodologies. The goal is to use painting itself—through process, material choices, and sustained looking—to challenge assumptions about representation and reorient our experience of the human figure. Prerequisite: ART 1530 or permission of instructor.
MW 4pm-5:55pm

* ART 2525b, Adventures in Self-Publishing  Alexander Valentine

This course introduces students to a wide range of directions and legacies within arts publishing, including the development of fanzines, artists’ books, small press comics, exhibition catalogues, “just in time” publications, and social media. Students are given instruction in the Yale School of Art’s Print Shop on various printing and binding methods leading to the production of their own publications both individually and in collaboration. Attention is paid to ways artists’ publishing has been used to bypass traditional cultural and institutional gatekeepers, to foster community and activism, to increase visibility and representation, and to distribute independent ideas and narratives. Students explore the codex as it relates to contemporary concepts of labor, economics, archives, media forms, information technologies, as well as interdisciplinary and social art practices. Supplemental readings and visits to the Haas Arts Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, YUAG’s prints and drawings study room, and the Odds and Ends Art Book Fair provide case studies and key examples for consideration. Prerequisite: ART 1111.
TTh 9:25am-11:20am

* ART 3555a, Silkscreen Printing  Alexander Valentine

Presentation of a range of techniques in silkscreen and photo-silkscreen, from hand-cut stencils to prints using four-color separation. Students create individual projects in a workshop environment. Prerequisite: ART 1514 or equivalent.  HU
TTh 9:25am-11:20am

ART 3556a, Printmaking I  Hasabie Kidanu

An introductory course on the historical, material, and collaborative nature of printmaking. Through studio projects, lectures, and critiques, we will explore both a personal and technological understanding of the print medium. Where and how does it share a commonality with literature, sculpture, photography and the moving image?  We will experiment with various techniques, including intaglio (dry-point etching, hard ground, aquatint), monotype, relief (linocut), and screen printing. Students will demonstrate critical thinking skills by engaging in a dialogue about their own work and the work of others. The themes of experimentation, reproducibility, storytelling, play, and patience will be particularly highlighted. Prerequisite: ART 1514 or equivalent.  RP
MW 9:25am-11:20am

* ART 3557b, Introduction to Relief Printmaking  Staff

This studio course introduces the foundations of oil-based relief printmaking, exploring the techniques of hand carving and printing from linoleum and woodblocks. Students learn block preparation, carving, ink mixing, registration, and printing by both hand and with an etching press. Students explore the techniques of both reduction and multiple plate printing. As the oldest form of printmaking, this course emphasizes the versatility of Relief printmaking, which can be done without chemicals or a printing press in its most basic form. Students are encouraged to draw connections between the printmaking process and their own work by problem solving, critical thinking, and conceptual understanding.
M 1:30pm-5:30pm

* ART 3558a, Introduction to Intaglio Printmaking  Hasabie Kidanu

This studio course introduces students to the foundations of intaglio printmaking including drypoint, line-etch, and aquatint along with plate preparation, printing, and registration. Intaglio, a 500-year old process offering a wide range of marks and tones, involves incising a surface to create a repeatable image matrix. Visiting artists, visits to Yale special collections, essays and lectures will supplement studio instruction. No previous printmaking experience necessary.
M 1:30pm-5:30pm

* ART 3559b, Introduction to Lithography  Irene Michnicki

This studio course introduces students to the foundations of Lithographic printmaking including stone, ball ground, and photographic plates, printing, and registration. Lithography, a planographic process developed in the 19th century, is particularly suited to reproducing drawn marks and high resolution photo prints. Visiting artists, visits to Yale special collections, essays and lectures supplement studio instruction. No previous printmaking experience necessary.
W 3:30pm-7:30pm

ART 4514b, Advanced Drawing  Anahita Vossoughi

Further instruction in drawing related to all four disciplines taught in the Art major. Emphasis on the development of students’ conceptual thinking in the context of the physical reality of the drawing process. Class time is divided between studio work, group critiques, discussion of assigned readings, and visits to working artists’ studios. Open to all students by permission of instructor. Art majors prioritized.  RP
MW 9:25am-11:20am

ART 4533a, Painting Studio: Space and Abstraction  Staff

A course for advanced painters, exploring historical and contemporary issues in abstraction including color, geometry, and gesture. Studio work is complemented by an in-depth study of the perception of flatness, depth, and light. The course emphasizes the visual, psychological, and cultural impacts of color on our overall perception and understanding. After guided prompts, ultimate emphasis is on self-directed projects. Prerequisites: ART 2530 and one course from ART 3531, 3532, or 3542, or with permission of instructor.  HU  RP
W 3:30pm-7:30pm

* ART 4557b, Interdisciplinary Printmaking  Hasabie Kidanu

Printmaking is inherently collaborative, generative, and social. Through studio projects, readings, and critiques, we explore both a personal and historical understanding of this medium. We learn how we can integrate printmaking with other disciplines. Where and how does it share a commonality with literature, sculpture, photography, and the moving image? We experiment with techniques, including intaglio (dry-point etching, aquatint, hard ground etchings), woodcuts, stencil, and screen printing. The themes of experimentation, play, reproducibility, circulation, and patience are particularly highlighted. Prerequisite: at least one term of printmaking.  RP
MW 9:25am-11:20am

ART 5110a, Painting/Printmaking First-Year Practicum  Meleko Mokgosi

A course required of all incoming M.F.A. students in the painting/printmaking department to unpack, denaturalize, and slow down our making and speaking practices as a community. The course hopes to bridge the intensities characteristic of our program: the intensity of the private studio with the intensity of the semi-public critique. We ask crucial questions about the relationships between form and content, between intents and effects, between authorship, authority, and authenticity, between medium specificity and interdisciplinarity, and between risk and failure. How can our ideas and language be tested against the theories of the past and present? Existential, spiritual, and market-based goals (both internal and instrumental motivations) for art making are explored. Meetings alternate between group critique and reading discussion, supplemented by a series of short writing exercises. Enrollment is limited to incoming students in the department, but readings and concepts are shared widely.  3 Course cr
T 1:30pm-4:30pm

ART 5199b and ART 5200a, Pit Crit  Staff

Pit crits are the core of the program in painting/printmaking. The beginning of each weekly session is an all-community meeting with students, the DGS, graduate coordinator, and those faculty members attending the crit. Two-hour critiques follow in the Pit; the fall term is devoted to developing the work of second-year students and the spring term to first-year students. A core group of faculty members as well as a rotation of visiting critics are present to encourage but not dominate the conversation: the most lively and productive critiques happen when students engage fully with each other. Be prepared to listen and contribute. Note: Pit crits are for current Yale students, staff, and invited faculty and guests only; no outside guests or audio/video recording are permitted.  3 Course cr per term
T 1:30pm-4:30pm

ART 5293a and ART 5294b, Painting/Printmaking Thesis  Staff

The course supports the Painting/Printmaking Thesis exhibition through development of programmatic and publication-based elements that extend the show to audiences beyond Yale, as well as attending to the logistics of the gallery presentation. Studio visits initiate conversations about the installation of physical work in addition to considering the documentation/recording possibilities that allow the work to interface with dynamic platforms online and in print. The course introduces technology and media resources at CCAM and the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at West Campus in addition to biweekly studio visits and group planning meetings. Editorial support is provided in order to enfold students’ writings and research with documents of time-based or site-specific work in an innovative and collectively designed publication. Enrollment limited to second-year students in painting/printmaking.  3 Course cr per term
Th 1:30pm-4:30pm

ART 5344a and ART 5345b, Individual Criticism: Painting/Printmaking  Meleko Mokgosi

Limited to M.F.A. Painting/Printmaking students. Criticism of individual projects.  6 Course cr per term
HTBA

ART 5431a, Day Jobs and Their Influence  Staff

This course will examine the porous boundaries between the painting studio and the work outside the studio that supports it. We will look to historical and conceptual models of artists who have bridged and acknowledged the disparate identities that have supported their practices. By incorporating seminal texts such as Helen Molesworth’s introductory essay for the Work Ethic show catalog (an overview of postwar American art that contended with labor and atomization), as well as Lauren Berlant’s introduction to Cruel Optimism (looking at how self-thwarting desire can be produced, culturally enforced and internalized), and De Certeau’s chapter titled ‘A Common Place: Ordinary Language’ from The Practice of Everyday Life (the concept of ‘the wig’ as a practice of masking creative work inside the non-creative work environment is outlined here), the class will consider questions such as: how do critical ideas from an avant garde position resist, circumvent, or re-purpose the making of commercial work? Similarly, the class will consider traditional applied arts (decorative painting, lacemaking, embroidery, hairdressing, set-design, etc.) and how these trained skills can be deployed in ways that ask critical questions about labor and skill in our contemporary art context. For this approach, we will read Graham Bader’s essay on the military technology that was incorporated into Lichtenstein’s drawing education (‘Lichtenstein Before Pop’ from Hall of Mirrors) and Raoul Vaneighem’s writing on the differences in the work of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali in how they related the question of the sub-conscious in their work to advertising (A Cavalier History of Surrealism). The class will be a place to reflect on the creative benefits of ‘walling off’ versus ‘letting in’ of occupational influences and skills. Can role playing as a non-fine-art laborer be a productive subject-position for making paintings? What perceptions and experiences could that allow into the studio-work and creative methodology that would otherwise not be possible?  3 Course cr
M 1:30pm-4:30pm

ART 5467a, Art as Critique  Miranda Samuels

Critique is a defining feature of contemporary art. To a significant extent, the critical method structures how art is taught, studied, interpreted, and valued. From Enlightenment philosophy and critical theory to institutional critique, post-colonial theory and critical fabulation, contemporary practitioners inherit a rich tradition of critical attitudes and frameworks. Critique is not only performed upon artworks or culture, however. Artworks can also enact forms of aesthetic and social critique in their own right, moving us to apprehend the world anew and imagine its transformation. At the same time, there is growing weariness around the institutional absorption of critique, as strategies once mobilized against dominant systems come to circulate with ease through academic, museum, and market frameworks. We are led to ask: How does critique lose its power? Is institutional recuperation inevitable? And what forms of critique might still open onto new modes of artistic and political engagement? This seminar returns to some foundational questions concerning art’s relationship to critique, identifying the various manners in which it exists, tracing how it is enacted, where it takes place, what tools it demands, and how it shifts across time and context. Through careful engagement with selected works of art, film, and literature, we will closely attend to the critical potential of the art object, exploring how its poetic, affective, and formal conditions can prefigure as well as engender critique. Our inquiry will consider the consequences for critique, what happens when critique hardens into style, the critical function of humor and satire, and how the figure of the critic is being reshaped within today’s media landscape. Readings drawn from art theory and criticism, aesthetic philosophy, and political theory will help anchor our discussions, as will artists' writings.  3 Course cr
W 9:25am-12:25pm

ART 5497b, Fabric Lab  Sophy Naess

A hands-on, materials-based course, Fabric Lab explores fiber-related praxis through a series of investigations into weave structures, stitching, needlecraft, and knots, as well as the application and removal of color from fabric via printing and dyeing techniques. Instruction is intended to serve individual studio practice. Weekly meetings in the classroom space provide an opportunity to develop and share technical skills as a group in relationship to specific prompts. Readings and presentations contextualize our material explorations within contemporary art practice, unpacking historical hierarchies of “fine art” vs. “craft” and attending to the diverse social histories that underlie our engagement with textiles. The course includes some site visits, including an artist’s studio, a textile conservator’s workshop, and an institutional fibers department.  3 Course cr
M 1:30pm-4:30pm