Anne Harris

This course will concentrate on drawing the figure with an emphasis on sculptural form. The objective will be to use drawing?particularly line?to investigate the body three-dimensionally. You will work from the inside out, drawing internal volume and topography, rather than an outside edge.

The goal will be to rotate the body and move it through space, to understand its basic structure and movement and, through that understanding, to learn about drawing as a tool for investigation, a way of exploring and structuring space, weight, and form.

By semester's end you will be able to invent a body in space. This ability is key to the tradition of figurative art found in artists ranging from Peter Paul Rubens to Kerry James Marshall and Nicole Eisenman.

Throughout the course we will be looking at and learning from a range of figurative artists, both historical and contemporary, via lectures and visits to the museum, including the AIC?s Prints and Drawings viewing room.

This is a highly structured course, akin to an intensive workshop. New information will be introduced every class. There will be regular outside assignments.

This is an intermediate/advanced class that will function both as studio course and in-depth conversation. Students will work on individual projects and will participate in group critique/discussion. Skill sets will be addressed as needed (the form of the head, likeness, etc.).

Through painting and drawing, we'll consider the portrait as a traditional and contemporary art form, from perceptual to conceptual to political. Questions to consider: What is a portrait today? Is it likeness? Character? Caricature? An individual presence? Must it even be figurative?

We'll look at and learn from a broad range of work, from ancient to contemporary, via lectures and museum visits, including the AIC Prints and Drawings viewing room. We'll discuss hundreds of artists from prehistoric to Renaissance to modernist to contemporary--as varied as Kathe Kollwitz, Ana Mendieta, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Readings and related materials are suggested when relevant (articles, interviews, Ted Talks, etc.)

The first 1/3 of the course covers basic skill sets: head structure, color organization, etc. We then move into independent projects. There are regular outside assignments.

This studio explores specific problems in each student's area of concentration and interest. Students are expected to command familiarity with problems of color, composition, and basic materials.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.