Preparatory courses for the 1^st year

Basics of Painting
Asst. Prof. Michaela Rázusová - Nociarová

The course offers the introduction to the medium of painting, examining its various aspects and stimulating independent thought in this medium. In the first part of the course students concentrate on a painting of reality (a still-life, objects) The live model study is an important part of the learning process. Among other the emphasis is placed on the issue of light and colour – two of the most important means of expression in realistic painting. The student is expected to take an individual approach to a thematic focus.

Main subject – STUDIO (practice based creative studio work)

Studio of Painting
Asst. Prof. Klaudia Kosziba

Štúdium maľby predpokladá individuálny a vysoko kreatívny vzťah k realite, ako k zdroju percepčnej činnosti a k videniu vôbec. Jeho cieľom je mnohotvárna maliarska prezentácia subjektívne vnímanej reality v jej nešpecifikovanej šírke - od klasických postupov až k rôznym možnostiam presahov, reflektujúc na všetky tradičné maliarske témy v kontexte ich aktuálneho preverovania na poli súčasnej vizuálnej kultúry.

The Fourth Studio
Prof. Ivan Csudai, MFA

BA level: Painting is understood in a full acceptance of historical continuity, but with focus on new possibilities in the high-tech world, and as a creative expression, individually captured and rooted. For the 6 semesters the focus is on acquiring all the appropriate techniques and on complete and perfect manipulation with the materials used in painting.

MA level: The study is based on accomplishment of individual projects, with use of professional technical basis, acquired during BA level studies. The painting today uses new technologies and its instruments became commonly used means in painter’s work. The technology base established in the studio offers the possibilities for digital preparation of a picture and creating vector/pixel image models. The classical painting however, is also undergoing its specific development and conservative techniques remain part of the means in the studio practice. The articulation of statement and relevant individual expression is a fundamental demand in MA level study.

Studio +- XXI
Prof. Daniel Fischer, MFA

BA level: The essence of the pedagogical approach lies in a cultivation of understanding a work of art as a whole: from the beginning of the study the interest in a complex solution of the content and form relationship.
Each semester students follow two tracks: students are on the one hand confronted with assignments which represent challenges to their active personal participation and at the same time they develop a line of their own, independent research. Assignments are conceived as open problem areas and concurrently also as limitations of the space examined, in the range from terming of a phenomenon of our world (from various fields, levels, etc.) through to intentionally briefly, quantitatively formulated expressions (size of the format, technique, amount, etc.).

MA level: Master’s study is understood as a room for intensive concentration on the studio work itself. Sensitivity in individual consultation sessions and an atmosphere of constant discourse, stimulation of interest in reflections on the relation between art and surrounding world, on the art’s place in it as well as on its meaning itself are considered the basic “instruments of teaching”. A substantial dimension of all creative activities is that of thought: from reflection of own research, own work in the wider context and from various aspects as well as levels of viewing within indicated intentions (…relations to the world…) towards the reflection upon one’s own thinking (thinking one’s own thought).

Compulsory vocational subjects

Drawing
Asst. Prof. Emőke Vargová, MFA
(modelling and construction of a model – figures in space)

The subject focuses on mastering the anatomical construction of a figure and expression of the model through specific assignments provoking individual work and viewing.
Emphasis is placed on addressing material drawing, creation of volume and its setting in space. Black-and-white and colour techniques are used alternately or in combination. The third year is reserved for development of an individual approach to a given motif. Assignments are directed towards variety of uses of the space, format, material and expression.

(concept and processing of a topic)

BA level: 7. and 8. semester the task is to apply the drawing to the specifically given possibilities and place. Assignments are of a research nature and require a specific approach and selection of appropriate means of expression. A deeper immersion in the issue is expected.
MA level: The first year of MA study correspond with the starting points of the main subject studio project and/or an independent programme of the student.

Dramaturgy of artistic material
Prof. Dezider Tóth, MFA

The aim of the course lies in the creative and research based approach to basic art materials and selected creative techniques. Emphasis is not placed on encyclopaedic knowledge, but should initiate individual reading. Therefore, instead of the term “technology”, we use the term “dramaturgy”. Practice based work do not abandon the field of painting technologies, with the focus on an initiatory nature of the process of painting. The room for independent study on the basis of recommended literature and comprehensive experiment. The purpose of the lectures is to gain the knowledge combined with practical experience, but we do not insist on memorisation, but require an artistic reflection. The lectures also include seminar exercises with creative material with an emphasis on visual-haptic recognition and procedures.

Non-studio – workshops (the idea of creative material)
Prof. Dezider Tóth, MFA

The aim is not to create conservation and restoration like copies, but an effort to pass through and experience of the building of a picture phase by phase, which was co-created by concentration, self-loss, slowness, rational calculation, etc. In order to avoid the mere sentimental touch with history, we are preparing together with students a different type of SHIFT for each year. Its substance is formed by the artistic re-reading and implementation of a reconstruction of the past into the present. Here the taking in contemporary attributes or various forms of artistic manipulation are at stake. Therefore the space for “deviation” from the assigned task remains open, although only if bringing in the new qualities. An important part of the process is failures and mistakes, which are however subject to analysis. Central is not the result, but the sum of changes, which do not take place merely before our eyes, but also in the participants.
The second sphere – supplementary work: a characteristic feature is that this work forms the opposition to the first sphere. It points to a different type of concentration, a different slowness, different type of self-loss. The most frequent assignment is that of bordering and crossing of technological processes, with an emphasis on artistic techniques. A different type of research is assigned for each semester. Emphasis is placed on the metaphorical language of material and visualization through which the material is articulated. Two types of concentration – the first, founded on the medieval habits, and the second, collected from the present – evoking the MATERIAL IDEA from the material.

Basics of Painting
Juliana Mrvová, MFA, Veronika Šramatyová, MFA

The subject familiarises students with the nature of individual shades of oil paints via programme interpretations of the Malevich’s square, Johns’ target, Rothko’s abstract expressionism or Turner’s skyscapes.

Creative Stay in the Countryside
Asst. Prof. Michaela Rázusová - Nociarová

Svetlo: fenomén svetla, viditeľné a neviditeľné svetlo, energia svetla, svetlo ako východisko k vnímaniu skutočnosti, svetlo ako výtvarná reč, svetlo ako médium, svetlo ako sprostredkovateľ tajomstva, …
Tieň: tieň ako hypotetický model zobrazovania, ako symbolický model, ako pohyblivý obraz, ako prostriedok.
Poznámka: ak pripustíme, že každý z nás má svoje rozhranie na ktorom sa odohráva stretnutie svetla a ticha, tak toto rozhranie je miestom, aurou inšpirácie.

Anatomy
MUDr. Ladislav Šabo

2 semesters

1.	The importance of teaching anatomy for artists.
2.	What is the position of man in nature? (Shaping of the body, bioethical problems.
3.	General construction plan of the human body, morphological laws in constructing the body of higher organisms, on the asymmetry of living systems, sexual dimorphism. Functional and causal anatomy.
4.	Building blocks of the human body: tissues, skeleton, muscles and sensory organs.
5.	Skeleton: growth and renewal of bones. Osteoporosis. Connection of bones, types of joints, types of movement. Muscles: composition, arrangement of muscles, mechanics of motional apparatus. Nervous system, principles of managing movement and maintaining the body’s balance.
6.	Human types: Psychological and somatic. Contemporary anthropological opinions on the origin of man, developmental (evolution) theory, emergence of bodily signs influenced by the environment. Basic types of race, racism, eugenics.
7.	In what does a person’s beauty lie: assessing appearance and the search for the model figure. Beauty: a cultural convention, or objective biological phenomenon? Theories and canons of proportion.
8.	The body at rest and in motion, basic terms in the mechanics of bodily movement. Physiological and conventional postures. Standing, counterpoise, lying, sitting, kneeling, hanging. Running, walking.
9.	The effect of age and gender on body forms.
10.	Torso: spine (vertebrae, sacrum, rump). Connection, base. Form, mobility, plastic significance of the spine. Chest: ribs, breastbone. Connection of ribs, intercostal muscles, diaphragm. Breathing movements. Shapes of the chest. Back, back muscles, shape. Breasts. Abdomen: muscles (rectal, exterior scalene, internal scalene, tranversal abdomenal muscle). Function and movement of abdomenal muscles. Shape of the abdomen. Sexual organs. Bottom of the pelvis.
11.	Other topics (ordered according to the scheme: introduction, bones and their connections, muscles, mobility, shapes) are the upper and lower limbs, neck, head (with a description of the sensory organs and the basis. Information on the brain as the most essential human feature. Bodily expressions of emotions, facial expressions).