Introduction to the Ancient Technique of Painting Icons on Wood
Location: Sculpture Room, Ottawa’s Art College (DOWNTOWN CAMPUS | CAMPUS DU CENTRE-VILLE)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this course, students of all levels of artistic skills will create egg-tempera paintings by exploring forgotten medieval techniques of making Byzantine icons. We will learn how to apply Gold leaf on handcrafted wood-panels and mix pigments with home-made emulsion and gesso. We will also learn how and why these ancient artistic methods influenced contemporary art and visual culture. For this reason, Byzantine art theory of color, drawing, and composition will be used to discover a new artistic medium and mode seeing images for creative self-expression. This will be done first via a series of exercises to understand the steps of painting exemplary Byzantine icons. In following this historical art form, students will paint next a “personal icon” on a wood-panel based on images and visual composition of their chose.
ENTER CLASS CONTENT
(information available only to registered students)
Figure Drawing and the Timeless Anatomical Principles from the Great Masters
Location: Ottawa’s Art College (DOWNTOWN CAMPUS | CAMPUS DU CENTRE-VILLE)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Suitable for all levels of artistic skills, this course analyzes the human form by drawing from medieval techniques of crosshatching found in works of such masters as DaVinci, Durer, Holbein, Raphael, and Rembrandt. Embracing the challenge of working from the live nude model via a series of exercises and demonstrations, the course focuses on the rib cage, pelvis and thigh, knee and lower leg, foot, shoulder girdle, arm, hand, neck and head. Using the traditional tools of nib, ink and charcoal students will acquire the practical knowledge of the old masters in seeing light and form to shape and inform a personal, artistic approach to the human body.
Enter class content
(information available only to registered students)
ARTH 385 Colour: Theory and Application in the Visual Arts
Fridays, 8:45am-11:15am
EV-1.605
“I prefer living in colour.” – David Hockney
This course reveals how past and present concepts of colour theory and their use in a wide range of art practices shape contemporary visual culture by placing emphasis on the transformative power of light. In order to see how color theory is used today in art, philosophy, and new media, it is vital to understand how underlying concepts apply to both traditional and digital materials and methods of working with colour. Therefore, the history of colors will start from the first prehistoric and ancient hues to the swatch colour panel and introduce fundamental elements as the electromagnetic spectrum, pigment properties, colour perception, colour psychology, and colour harmonies. Based on visual experiments and techniques of colour organization and mixing, we will explore major theories of colorists as Aristotle, da Vinci, Newton, Goethe, Chevreul, Albers, Itten, Kandinsky, and Munsell and review the central role of colour in art movements as Impressionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Op Art, and Neo-expressionism. While reviewing aesthetic philosophies of artists and architects that marked the development of Western art history, this course also delves into the cultural/symbolic nature and usage of colours from a non-western perspective, which includes Eastern and Indigenous forms of art. There is no universal consensus on how to use colors and a global cultural/religious view will reveal how colour defines ways of living in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Art History Survey I
Instructor: Adrian Gor
Location: Library Room, 3rd floor, Ottawa’s Art College (DOWNTOWN CAMPUS | CAMPUS DU CENTRE-VILLE)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is an introduction to the art and architecture of the prehistoric, ancient and medieval world. The artistic traditions of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas will be surveyed from the prehistoric era to c. 1400 CE. Questions of style, content, function, and cultural and historical context will be emphasized throughout.
ENTER CLASS CONTENT
(information available only to registered students)
Art History Survey II
Instructor: Adrian Gor
Location: Library Room, 3rd floor,Ottawa’s Art College (DOWNTOWN CAMPUS | CAMPUS DU CENTRE-VILLE)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is an introduction to the art and architecture of the prehistoric, ancient and medieval world. The artistic traditions of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas will be surveyed from the prehistoric era to c. 1400 CE. Questions of style, content, function, and cultural and historical context will be emphasized throughout.
ENTER CLASS CONTENT
(information available only to registered students)
ARTH 383 - Art & Philosophy
T-18:00-20:15
EV-1.605
INSTRUCTOR: ADRIAN GOR
"Religion is so much a part of life, so intimately entangled with everything we think and do, that it seems absurd it does not have a place in talk about contemporary art." James Elkins
This course explores the link between art, philosophy, and religion, focusing in particular on contemporary art exhibitions. The "Modern Age" did not eliminate the sacred, but it made it internationally available in a profane way. In examining art exhibitions from the late 19th century to the present that consider religious and spiritual issues, students will develop an understanding of how the dissemination of the theological convictions of philosophers into the mainstream influenced culture, society and politics worldwide. Drawing upon the philosophical and theological concepts of Michel Henry, Martin Heidegger, David Morgan, Bruno Latour, Marie-Jose Mondzain, Rudolf Otto, Ludwig Wittgenstein and others, will allow for different methods of seeing works of art from a sacred and profane point of view. Students will be encouraged to critically engage in discussing works of contemporary artists such as Marina Abramovic, Maurizio Cattelan, Bill Viola, Wassily Kandinsky, Barnett Newman, Jannis Kounellis, Stephen Antonakos, Kiki Smith, and more. Additionally, to shed more light on the artworks embedded with religious connotations, parallels will be made to the way images are perceived from the traditional perspectives of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism as well as the spiritual philosophies of Theosophy, Neo-Theosophy, New Age thought, and mysticism. In analyzing the different approaches toward these issues in recent exhibitions such as 100 Artists see God, Medium Religion,Iconoclash, and Eretica, students will learn how artists engage with the ideas of post-secular philosophers that have sparked some of the most controversial debates within contemporary philosophy.
VISUAL FOUNDATIONS 1
Daniel Libeskind. The Jewish Museum (1989–1996). Extension of the Berlin Museum, Berlin, Germany
Instructor: Adrian Gor
Location: Ottawa’s Art College (DOWNTOWN CAMPUS | CAMPUS DU CENTRE-VILLE)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Introduction to two dimensional Projects and exercises with the intention to develop the understanding and the production of visual arts. The main concepts that will be presented are related to visual composition and visual theory. This class will also address current art trends as well as historical art movements.
The class is mostly practical with a big emphasis on experimentation and it is complemented by a biweekly presentation about each topic.
ENTER CLASS CONTENT
(information available only to registered students)