Is Painting a Language? Or is it Mud?

This course aims to undo conventional ways of describing and categorizing painting and to ask how language can become a generative tool in the studio—and when it has to step aside to let painting bodies act as and with matter.


As an object, painting has a material and linguistic problem: The painted thing will never be the thing itself. An image of mud, a sensitive curve; the painting body enacts the depiction of another body; a sign for a sign for a sign. Painting is troubled by language and bothered by naming. Abstraction is cramped by flatness, disembodiment, and repression; representation by illusion, figuration, and psychology. What if the material, formal and historical possibilities of painting are not fixed categories mapped onto the work but rather a toolbox for their own dismantling?

Course leader

Ulrike Müller/Evie K. Horton

Target group

Artists and students interested in the possibilities of painting beyond the conventional binaries.

Course aim

Students can expect a mix of visual and textual inputs, group conversations and individual consultation and contemplate the possibilities of painting beyond—and in the space between—conventional binaries such as concept vs. form, figuration vs. abstraction, depth vs. flatness, and observation vs. imagination. Participants will explore working with and against fixed categories with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of what they already do and how to develop a more capacious painting practice.

Fee info

EUR 100: Participation Fee
The fees consist of the enrolment charge of € 100.– (non-refundable) and a course fee which varies according to the length of the course. Students are entitled to the reduced fee on production of a valid confirmation of enrolment at an educational institution for the 2024 summer term as well as SN-Card-holders and members of the Society of Friends of the Summer Academy.

Costs for material used in the courses are not included in the participation fee, and will be charged separately at the beginning of the course.

On acceptance, the enrolment charge of € 100.– should be paid immediately. The course fee must be entered in the Summer Academy account by 30 June 2024.


Payments will be accepted using the following credit cards: Mastercard and Visa
EUR 670: Students attending two consecutive courses pay the enrolment fee only once; the course fee is calculated according to the total number of weeks.
2-week course:
€ 670.– (normal fee)
€ 495.– (reduced fee)

Scholarships

https://www.summeracademy.at/en/studies/scholarships/