College of Arts and Architecture
School of Visual Arts
DRAWING &
PAINTING
The Drawing & Painting Area of the School of Visual Arts at Penn State
is dedicated to an inter-disciplinary, pluralistic, and multimedia
approach to art making that embraces painting, drawing, installation,
performance, video, and computer-generated image making, as well as web
based art and other yet to be defined art forms. The Drawing & Painting area encourages
theoretical and personal inquiry into all forms of artmaking, while maintaining
the practice of painting as a cultural site from which critical thinking
about art can commence. Figurative, non-figurative, abstract, text-based,
systems-based, and deconstructive forms of painting and drawing are encouraged.
Development of a knowledge of the history of art along with an understanding
of current issues affecting art and society are expected along side experimentation
in materials and format.
The faculty is comprised of individuals of national and international
prominence who are dedicated to full participation in professional art
activities as well as to teaching. They provide a variety of points-of-view, engage in regularly
scheduled open critiques in which the students have an opportunity to
present their work. The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, as incorporated
within the Drawing & Painting area, is highly competitive and has produced students
that have gone on to the finest graduate schools in the country. The Master
of Fine Arts Program in the Drawing & Painting area is committed to a completely
open exploration of art, principally focused on painting, but strongly
endorsing the undertaking of multi-media, and technologically based work
as well. Theoretical involvement in gender, identity, deep ecology and
other socio-political investigations within art making is strongly supported.
The goal of the painting area is to foster dialogue on the place of art
in society as well as to equip the undergraduate and graduate student
with the means necessary to embark upon a career in the visual arts, and
ultimately to help deepen their understanding of their own potential as
artists within today's, and tomorrow's world.
The School of Visual Arts at Penn State offers a B.A. and a B.F.A. degree in the area of Drawing & Painting. Please see detailed descriptions of the two degree programs under Degrees Offered. The B.F.A. degree requires a portfolio review for placement.
FACULTY
Micaela Amato
John Bowman
Helen O'Leary
Ann Shostrom
Jeanne Marie Wasilik
Robert Yarber
COURSES