Painting can be used in many different ways. It can give vent to direct expression, or its principles can be applied. We perceive it sensitively as one of the sources of the visual within the broader context of contemporary tendencies. Painting (and contemporary art in general) is a means of individual and collective expression, of recording the everyday world, dreams, trauma, joy or the unconscious.
Employees
„Art exists because reality is neither real nor significant.”
J.G. Ballard
Painting can be used in many different ways. It can give vent to direct expression, or its principles can be applied. We perceive it sensitively as one of the sources of the visual within the broader context of contemporary tendencies. Painting (and contemporary art in general) is a means of individual and collective expression, of recording the everyday world, dreams, trauma, joy or the unconscious. Art can be a way of understanding, cognising the world and oneself, bringing us closer to the unknown, the mystery of why we really are.
We view painting within the context of contemporary art as an interdisciplinary form of artistic expression. We encourage students to find their own themes and individual styles. We do not discriminate against more conservative approaches. A broad-based conception of contemporary art includes all disciplines: painting, sculpture, drawing, new media, photography, performance, virtual art and audiovisual experimentation.
Even the strongest themes need a well-selected medium if they are to speak. We are at present witness to a revaluation of values and priorities, and this demands in turn a societal debate. Art can and should be everything around and within us. How do we locate the boundary between art and reality? All procedures have already been tried, recorded and analysed. We draw on them, deform them, enhance them, and seek ways of continuing to work with them.
The study of art is a process. On the one hand there is work with talent, diligence and internal discipline, while on the other there is an awareness of the responsibility for expression. The decision to study art relates to a certain maturity of personality. It is guided by an inner need to transform aesthetic perception combined with craftsmanship into a tangible creative expression, i.e. the desire to become an artist.
We treat each student as an individual. Each is part of a whole in relation to their peers. Each receives the necessary space for self-realisation within the studio and AVU as a whole. We expect our students to be open to mutual intellectual communication, to be able to accept and tolerate the ideas of others, to concentrate and to display commitment. We try to listen to our students, to approach their ideas sensitively and to intervene as little as possible. We try to motivate them to attempt creative experiments, to collaborate and to communicate to others what it is they are trying to achieve. We promote independence.
