Sabina
Bernard

In addition to these works, we will also explore a wide range of artists in depth, including in the context of this year’s exhibitions, with a particular focus on Beato Angelico, Odilon Redon, and Victor Hugo’s drawings and ink wash illustrations. These artists and works are vastly different in terms of both time and style.
My task will be to ‘listen’ to you individually – each student is an island unto themselves – and to gradually point you towards references and further insights.
Depending on their own sensibilities and inclinations, each student will be offered a framework of references from visual culture, which can serve as both a point of reference and a basis for further exploration.
There are no restrictions on the choice of artistic language that students ultimately adopt, provided it is underpinned by genuine research, both on an individual and a formal level.
To gradually become capable of critically evaluating one’s own work, of understanding when to let chance dictate the course of events, and of knowing how and to what extent to correct, resolve and conclude. Finding one’s own signature style, which is unique and takes into account our limitations (sometimes, it is precisely these that set us apart), and learning how to enhance our strengths.

• We will host professional curators and painters in the classroom, who will present their working methods to us.
• In addition to the usual introduction to the preparation of supports, we will host a conservator for a participatory demonstration of paper relining, so that you can learn how to mount paper onto canvas and become even more independent.
• Over the course of the semester, 20–30 educational outings will be organised outside class hours to visit contemporary art foundations and galleries together: the Gagosian Gallery, Monitor, Magazzino, Matèria, the Anna Marra Gallery, Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea, Lorcan O’Neill, Alessandra and Valentina Bonomo, Studio Sales, the Giuliani Foundation, etc.
  We will also visit more peripheral spaces, new galleries or artists’ co-working spaces, such as Spazio in situ, Condotto 48, Rione Placido, Varsi, Ala 34, Cosmo, Castro and Interzone.
  It is impossible and pointless to list them all; the programme changes every year and depends on many factors.
• The models will pose for just two consecutive weeks, in pairs for a long pose, which is entirely optional, and will be placed within a composition. This exercise should be taken for what it is: a preparatory, conceptual exercise to help students gain control over the construction of the entire composition (this requires a clear decision and the ability to synthesise). This will only account for a small part of the course; you will be encouraged to seek out your own style, your own signature, your own atmosphere. You will be able to translate reality in an infinite number of ways, through marks and brushstrokes, without seeking out pre-packaged aesthetic formulas or nostalgic reworkings of times gone by.
• A wide range of catalogues and monographs will be offered and made available to students throughout the entire course. These will be available in the classroom for consultation. From Piero della Francesca to William Kentridge, from Chaim Soutine to Anselm Kiefer, from Kitaj to Foujita, from Art Brut to Kiki Smith.

Examination format
The examination will be preceded by two compulsory revision sessions, in which all students will participate together, one in the middle of the semester and one at the end. The assessment criteria for the exam will be attendance, the merit of the student’s personal research, the quality of their work, their participation in the proposed activities, and their understanding of the text chosen as the compulsory reading.
– In agreement with the lecturer, each student will choose their own poetic approach, a topic or a field they feel comfortable with, and will develop it into a series of final works, which may be accompanied by sketches and preparatory studies demonstrating a well-thought-out creative process and an original style.
– There are no restrictions, either in terms of expressive form or medium (painting per se / mixed media / collage or other), nor in terms of experimenting with a wide range of materials.