SPECIALISATION
Painting, Visual Arts

DEPARTMENT
Visual Arts

INSTITUTION
NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti - Milan Campus

ACCREDITED BY
Italian Ministry of Education and Research

TITLE AWARDED
First Level Academic Degree

CFA
180

LANGUAGE OF TUITION
Italian or English

COURSE DURATION
3 years

The Bachelor in Painting and Visual Arts recognises the transformations of the contemporary artistic practice, which have abandoned the disciplinary boundaries of Fine Arts for a more open and multi-disciplinary application and an interaction with the various areas of productive and social life.

The course of study reinterprets and expands the traditional academic approach to painting and visual arts, and is characterized by an experimental method that uses a wide range of artistic and media techniques; it also encourages the students to create works of art starting from a systemic project, and correlating to the dynamics and values of contemporary art. Students are therefore guided, through the experimentation with a variety of environments, techniques and methods, to develop a personal way of expressing themselves and their own artistic path. The programme was conceived starting from the idea that contemporary artists should be able to combine creative skills with organizational, relational and communicative skills: the professional figure that emerges is that of a professional able to cover different roles within the aesthetic and social sphere. Alongside the strictly artistic skills, the students creative and self-promotion skills are therefore developed, with the aim of facilitating in the art world introduction and critical awareness of their work.

The ideal students feel a strong drive to express themselves through various artistic languages and aesthetic means. They havenan aptitude for the different areas and disciplines of the visual arts, and a creative approach which may initially lack of adequate technical skills to support it. Previous training in the arts is a plus, yet the three-year programme also welcomes students who have developed their passion for art independently. Basic skills in the fields of drawing, illustration and art history theories are required, however it is not necessary to have competencies in painting, sculpture and other specific disciplines that will be studied during the academicncourse. Any related knowledge is considered an extra, but is not binding. For admission procedures, please refer to the Academic Regulations.

The Bachelor of Arts programme aims at providing the students with advanced level training for the full mastery of artistic methods and techniques, and for the acquisition of highly professional skills. The course also aims at developing solid professional profiles in the fields of painting and visual arts, based on:

• The mature and aware understanding of a methodological approach capable of facing any degree of design complexity through a coherent vision, and of successfully managing the multiplicity of parameters, variables and technical skills that are necessary for the development of projects and artistic works.

• The ability to dispose of personal skills in a flexible and adaptable way, in order to express them effectively in any type of professional context, both locally and globally, and to deal with any unpredictable evolution of professional scenarios.

• The exploration of the limits and constraints of the world of visual arts through the growth of critical awareness, attribution of meanings, attitude to original and experimental thinking, inclusive and multidisciplinary approach, and fine-tuning of self-expression through individual works and artistic projects.

During the Bachelor in Painting and Visual Arts, the students will have the opportunity to:

• Create and exhibit artistic works

• Use aesthetic and visual languages to work with images

• Show their organizational and communication skills in the field of art and culture

• Acquire basic skills in drawing, painting, graphic design, video, photography, sound design and other media

• Acquire basic knowledge of art history and of the world of contemporary art

Over the three-year period, the students undertake different types of educational activities depending on their learning goals. The activities include:

• Frontal lectures

• Use of tutorials, videos or other multi-media material

• Development of individual or group projects

• Individual or group study and research

• Active involvement of the students in class through discussions and presentations

• Exercises and revisions

• Laboratories

• Classroom demonstrations

• Visits to relevant professional sectors and institutions

• Seminars and workshops with industry professionals or visiting lecturers

• Intensive seminars on specific topics

• Individual sessions and tutoring

The achievement of the learning goals is generally evaluated at the end of the term, although intermediate evaluations may occur. Assessment methods vary according to the learning goals being assessed, and may include:

• Oral exams

• Written exams

• Practical demonstrations

• Graded exercises

• Graded reviews

• Papers

• Complete projects

• Submission of papers, projects or research work

The Bachelor in Painting and Visual Arts is divided into 6 semesters of didactic activity, followed by a period dedicated to the completion of extra-didactic activities (internships, abroad study) and research aimed at the development of the final project. The didactic activities are organised for the students to gradually acquire technical and theoretical knowledge in different disciplines of the visual arts. In addition, the Bachelor of Arts reinforces the understanding of disciplines and theories related to aesthetic expression, while also creating interaction with different areas of the productive and social life.

In the first semester of the first year, the students start their in-depth study of the technical subjects that introduce them to their artistic journey. Courses such as Artistic Anatomy help deepen the anatomical study of the body and understand the fundamental representative models of the human figure in art, between scientific and artistic representation, gestures and expression, space and movement. The course in Painting Techniques focuses on artistic materials as for their structure and application procedures, and aims at offering complete technical and artistic support to the student’s creativity. The Engraving module, which is part of the course in Painting Techniques, introduces the students to the specific techniques of chalcography, etching, aquatint, soft varnish, embossing, drypoint and black manner, of woodcut and linocut, and finally of matrix printing techniques. The course in Visual Arts 1 offers a rich overview of technical-theoretical approaches to contemporary artistic practices, from which students can start to build, deepen and expand their own personal path, experimenting with new observation imagery and their translation into artistic projects.

The theoretical course in Modern Art History, on the other hand, explores the history of art as a means of reading contemporary phenomena: the languages of art, its contexts and fields, the question of images, their manipulation and consumption, from the beginning of the industrial era to the development of those technology and communication media that characterize our current situation. In the second semester of the first year, subjects such as Drawing are introduced. The course, consisting of two modules, leads the students to acquire effective coordination between visual processes and their graphic translation, opening a critical reflection on the phenomenology of representation. The Basic Drawing module is a practical laboratory that aims at stimulating the search for personal and mindful ways, arousing food for critical reflection on the conventions and statutes of representation and showing the central role of drawing in the context of contemporary artistic production. The Illustration module, on the other hand, intends to stimulate and enhance the students’ graphic representation skills through exercises and progressive insights aimed at learning new methodologies and developing a personal modus operandi in drawing. The course in Painting I deepens different aspects of painting by reflecting on the problems of subjects and on the means that the students can experiment with. Using different techniques such as watercolour, tempera, oil and acrylic, and working on many supports (paper, wood, canvas, among others), the students are stimulated to acquire exclusive understanding of painting. The Photography course’s purpose is to bring the students closer to the culture of photographic projects through the analysis of their historical and technical aspects, and of the issues related to how to look at and understand photographic images. It provides students with the necessary skills for the use of analogue and digital photographic equipment. To this purpose, it includes a main module of Photography, and a supplementary, complementary module of Photographic Techniques. The theoretical course in Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts concludes the first year of studies by guiding the students to explore and critically analyse “visual culture”-related images through the knowledge of the different, current languages of the artistic expression.

In the second year of study, the course in Visual Arts 2 provides further knowledge of different design methods which help strengthen and develop, in addition to the technical / formal aspect, also the theoretical part and the contents of individual projects. The course in Painting 2 aims at deepening the knowledge of the pictorial language through an analysis of its main elements; the pictorial surface, the colour and the material, the expressive values of the support, the expressive peculiarities of the various pictorial techniques, the pictorial gesture and the different signs it produces. Afterwards, a series of courses focusing on analogue and digital audio / visual production are introduced. Visual Arts Techniques and Technologies consists of two modules: that of Shooting Techniques is based on the analysis and experimentation with some languages and cinematographic techniques in the context of contemporary production, and aims at the creation of original video projects; Basic Editing helps develop awareness and autonomy in the audio-visual postproduction.

The Video-installations course, in the fourth semester, is made up of two complementary modules. The Videoart module focuses on the technical aspects of the creation of audio / video products, in order to provide students with the necessary tools for the creation of video works, from the design phase to its production, post-production and final presentation. The Analysis and Design of the Sound-Spaces module provides students with critical and executive tools to conceive and develop their own sound projects. The course Public Art introduces the students to the field of public art and interventions in the public spaces, and engages students in investigation and intervention projects that lead them to critically combine architecture and urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture, visual communication and plastic arts in general.

The Sculpture course consists of two modules. The Sculpture module starts with a question about what we mean by sculpture today. From three-dimensional objects made of canonical materials through the languages of art history, to the assembly of diverse elements from different disciplinary fields and the use of different linguistic means. The Performing Arts module aims at providing the students with the necessary skills to create performative actions of the body, gestures or objects in a specific space. This module’s “experiential” methodology adopts physical and actor training methods to provide knowledge, allowing the students to acquire mature consciousness of both the artistic possibilities and the unpredictable aspects of the world around us.

The theoretical courses in History of Contemporary Art I and Aesthetics complete the educational offer of the second year of study. The course in Contemporary Art History aims at providing students with the necessary analytical tools for the articulation of a dynamic and critical vision of images within the contemporary society.

It is structured as an interdisciplinary investigation of the artistic production of the 20th Century (visual arts, cinema, TV, and new technologies) with a methodological framework of reference that privileges a historical/anthropological approach and the analysis of several documents (images and documentaries). Through the study of artists and movements, cultural trends and fashions, the course illustrates the transition from modernity to contemporaneity. The course in Aesthetics, on the other hand, highlights problems related to the current situation of contemporary art and culture. It focuses on philosophical aesthetics and on the identification of artistic research trends.

The third year ends with compulsory and optional courses. Each student is invited to choose between Painting and Visual Arts as a specialisation.

The course in Visual Arts 3 analyses possible design and exhibition ethods in consideration of the work to be presented and exhibited, and of the latest trends and practices within the world of contemporary art. The Display module provides a reflection on practices and models adopted in the construction of the exhibition space, analysing paradigmatic examples and reference case studies in the history of exhibitions and in curatorial methodology, from the early 20th Century until today. In Painting III, after the first two years of experimentation, the students are invited to deepen their understanding of the pictorial language by completing it with their own research. The course includes a complementary module: Display.

As for the elective courses, it is possible to choose among: Drawing II with its two modules: Drawing, which provides cognitive and methodological tools to support the in-depth study and the critical assimilation of drawing, and Illustration, which substantially moves away from traditional illustration and uses expressive research and experimentation as the main tools to take the students to an aware and mature use of their graphic and illustration skills.

The Photography II course offers the tools to develop awareness in reading and creating photographic images. The Sculpture II course follows up the second year course by encouraging individual work and further reflection on how to decline the word “sculpture” in its contemporary sense. The course in Video-installations II focuses on the technical aspects of the creation of audio / video products, in order to provide the students with the necessary tools to carry out their personal audio-visual projects from the design phase to the production (shooting and editing), postproduction and final presentation.

Successful Painting and Visual Arts graduates possess all the theoretical, technical and design tools to start a professional career in various areas of Visual Arts both as collaborations and as independent professional activities. Prospective professional roles include: visual artists, painters, illustrators, assistant curators, organizers of cultural events, cultural mediators, assistant directors, directors, directors of photography, video animators, sound designers, graphic designers, exhibition and exhibition designers, audio and video publishers, photography assistants, photographers, art critics, professionals in the field of cultural heritage management (museum staff, collections, foundations etc.)