Painting and Drawing | Academic Requirements | Student Learning Outcomes | Drawing Courses | Painting Courses | Faculty

Undergraduate Painting Courses (VPA)

VPA 1000–1999 (lower level)
VPA 2000–2999 (lower level)
VPA 3000–3999 (upper level)
VPA 4000–4999 (upper level)

Note: In sequenced courses (e.g., I, II, III, IV), successful completion of each course is a prerequisite for the next course in the sequence. For example, VPA 3010/Advanced Painting I is a prerequisite for VPA 3020/Advanced Painting II.

VPA 1000–1999:

Painting I
VPA 1010 / 4 credits / Every semester
In this introduction to oil painting, projects focus on a variety of attitudes toward making paintings. Some assignments involve painting from direct observation while others involve transforming and abstracting from a given motif. Students develop color equivalents for observed relationships by translating their experience into color choices of hue, value, intensity, and temperature.

Painting II
VPA 1020 / 4 credits / Every semester
A continuation of VPA 1010. Emphasis is on the role of technique, style, color, and composition in painting. Students’ work is based on art historical models, concepts, and direct observation. Various oil painting methods, techniques, and approaches, as well as the physical aspects of building painting supports, are covered.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010

VPA 2000–2999:

Painting III
VPA 2010 / 4 credits / Fall
A continuation of VPA 1020, with emphasis on choices of color, scale, size, composition, and subject. Projects may include interiors and figures in the environment, as well as narrative, conceptual, and thematic approaches.
Prerequisite: VPA 1020

Black and White as Color
VPA 2130 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students are asked to invent and discover roles for black and white to play, other than the traditional and obvious ones of dark and light. The goal is to characterize observed form and space in “plastic terms” (Matisse). Colorants are explored in extension, as areas. Plasticity is expressed by means of color interaction: selective orchestrations of color intervals, edge conditions, quantity, distribution, and proportion. Also offered as VDR 2130.
Prerequisite: VDR 1010 and VPA 1010

VPA 3000–3999:

The Generated Image
VPA 3000 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students make paintings and drawings based on generated images. Various strategies, including appropriating imagery from cultural media (print, photography, the Web) and manipulating imagery through mechanical and electronic processes (photocopy, Photoshop), are explored. Other approaches (e.g., layering, de/constructing, morphing) may also be used to generate imagery for narrative, ironic, or abstract works.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010 and working knowledge of Photoshop

Advanced Painting I and II
VPA 3010 and 3020 / 4 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
Students work independently, choosing their subjects and approach to painting under the guidance of a faculty member. Critical thinking is promoted in critiques and discussion of readings. Students’ work is considered in the context of contemporary painting as they attempt to define their individual sensibility and concerns in preparation for the senior project.
Prerequisite: VPA 2020

Visiting Artist
VPA 3050 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Visiting artists work with advanced students to further develop their painting skills and abilities. Students work independently and meet for group discussions and critiques. Readings and field trips may supplement the visiting artists’ discussions.

Materials and Techniques
VPA 3100 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Contemporary and more traditional approaches to painting materials and techniques are examined. Topics include pigments, solvents, supports, media, and their technical applications.
Prerequisite: VDR 1010

People and Places
VPA 3110 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Issues are figure/ground, identity/context, and the diverse roles of the figure in art. Using varied methods and approaches, students explore the wide-ranging possibilities of figuration, drawing from the model and other sources. The history and traditions of figurative art are examined in slide presentations and gallery visits.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor

Onsite Painting
VPA 3270 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students work outside the studio from direct observation. Invention and unique responses are encouraged. Sites have included Grand Central Station, the Rockefeller Estate, the Westchester County Airport, and various locations on campus.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of painting

Experimental Painting
VPA 3410 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
This course encourages nontraditional approaches to painting. Students explore a more innovative and interpretive response to their visual and intellectual experiences, both through a wide-ranging use of tools and materials and through complex and unconventional concepts, ideas, and subject matter. Assumptions about technique, subject, author, environment, audience, and historical classifications are interrogated.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010

Junior Studio I and II
VPA 3500 and 3510 / 4 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
A two-semester course focusing on the synthesis of observational skills, a visual vocabulary, and individual vision. Students identify their sensibilities and interests through increasingly self-directed assignments and further their visual, technical, conceptual, and verbal abilities. Also offered as VDR 3500 and 3510.
Prerequisite: Junior standing in painting/drawing

The Monotype
VPA 3550 Refer to VPR 3550 in Printmaking Courses for description.

Studio Assistant
VPA 3950 Refer to VDR 3950 in Drawing Courses for description.

VPA 4000–4999:

Research
VPA 4200 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students are asked to discover and develop source material for their personal vision and to identify their affinities for contemporary and historical art and artists. They gather stimuli to nourish their studio practice by collecting, sorting, and recording thematic topics and investigating images and information. The outcome of the course is a personal archive of drawings and visual material. Also offered as VDR 4200.

Senior Seminar and Critique
VPA 4400 / 4 credits / Spring
Commitment and professional practice are the focus of this seminar. Students are encouraged to articulate and clarify the intentions of their work through lectures, critiques, discussions, and readings. Required for all painting/drawing majors who are undertaking a senior project in painting.
Prerequisite: VPA 3500 and 3510

Special Topics
VPA 4500 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
An extensive study of a particular topic or technique in painting. Topics vary each semester.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of painting

Special Topics Workshop
VPA 4501 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A 2-credit workshop version of VPA 4500 on a particular topic or technique in painting. Topics vary each semester.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of painting

Updated July 14, 2011

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