The Departments of Painting and Printmaking is the largest
specialist department within the School of Fine Art and the
programme of study provides an increase the breadth of experience
and learning opportunities for students.
The programme aims to equip students with the necessary skills and
expertise to realise their full creative potential and to pursue a
career in the visual arts or other chosen professions. Each year is
designed to ensure that it builds upon the previous year in terms
of content, skill development and individual research.
Students are provided with a sound knowledge of the theory and
practice of their subject before developing personal study paths
and self-motivated programmes of work in the final year. Staff will
help students to acquire the theoretical and practical skills
needed as a practising artist and all students will be exposed to a
wide range of views from both staff and visiting artists.
Painting
Painting is a very long-standing human activity, and is as much
the outcome of thought and reflection as writing a novel or a
theoretical scientific paper. An awareness of the history and
traditions of painting are fundamental to our programme of
study.
The Painting programme reflects the complex and changing
conditions of art today, responding to new ideas and encouraging
innovation. Painting in Glasgow is understood as a vehicle of
thought and an intellectual discipline capable of great expressive
powers. The Department encompasses a wide range of approaches to
the subject and students have the opportunity to extend their work,
in addition to printmaking, into areas such as electronic media and
photography.
Printmaking
Print exists as a vital force in our everyday lives, providing an
effective means for communicating ideas and disseminating
information. Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art is based on
an exploration of visual representation allied to the materials,
processes and formats of established and developing
technologies.
For the student, an understanding of the continuing relationship
between reproduction and expression, the original and the copy,
fine art and printed information, will engender an awareness of the
print as a primary form of visual art, whilst supporting the
creation of work informed by critical debate.
The Printmaking programme is structured around two principal areas
of activity, the studio and the workshop. The three main areas of
technical provision in the workshops are etching, lithography and
silkscreen. There are also extensive facilities for relief
printing, photo-mechanical and reprographic processing and a
comprehensive print-specific digital imaging suite.
Forum for Critical
Inquiry
A element of the programme is delivered by the Forum for
Critical Inquiry (FoCI) The Forum is an essential component of the
programme. For most of the four years of undergraduate programmes
in design and fine art, one day per week of the student timetable
is allocated to the Forum. It is a cross-school and
externally linked critical mass of diverse research expertise in
broad-based critical studies for contemporary creative practices in
design, art and architecture.
The range of teaching styles varies from traditional keynote
lectures to interactive discussion groups and experiential
learning. Courses are constructed in order to both underpin studio
practice and to open out and extend the range of student
research.
All students are required to attend lectures and discussion
groups, to make oral presentations, to write essays and in the
final year, to present a piece of personal research in the form of
an Extended Essay (20% of the final degree mark) or a Dissertation
(30% of the final degree mark).
Students requiring learning support are provided with additional
teaching tailored to individual needs. Each student also has a
departmental contact tutor who acts in an advisory and pastoral
capacity in relation to progress in Forum for Critical Inquiry.
