The Committee on the Visual Arts

The Committee on the Visual Arts offers an advanced program that explores the relationship between ideas in art and their realization. Studio concentrations may develop within the bounds of traditional practice or extend to more current thinking about the visual disciplines. Specifically, students work in painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and photography as well as performance, video, and film. At the heart of the experience here are the dialogues between the student and faculty advisers, and those between students and colleagues. The critical atmosphere is rich and constructive: the entire faculty, members of the committee from other disciplines, visiting artists, critics, and students spend two days at the end of each quarter discussing in detail the work of each graduate student. These meetings are typically energetic and far reaching. Although they often lead to argument and disagreement, they also produce a wealth of possibilities from which the student is able to define a personal position.

A very important function in this graduate program is fulfilled by visiting artists who come to us in various capacities for an afternoon to present their work or for several days as critics. The pool of talent is extensive; in addition to the large number of artists who live in the city, many others are here to install shows or to lecture.

While the program emphasis naturally centers on studio growth, a series of three required seminars has been created to examine historical, philosophical, and psychological points of view affecting the arts. These are opportunities to establish critical distance between the individual and his or her studio practice. No one expects the seminars to have direct effects on the artist’s image making. However, they are provocative experiences and, in time, may contribute to the reordering of creative priorities.

During the eighteen-course program, which normally requires six quarters or two academic years in residence, students will pursue individual courses of study under the tutorial guidance of their advisors. Although registration and the recording of courses and grades will conform to standard University practices, the program is designed to provide a free structure. Studio investigations will continue through the entire period, augmented by quarterly course selections in art history and other academic subjects. Individual programs will be formulated with advisors and the concurrence of the Director of Graduate Studies. Programs may be reviewed and changed at any time.

Toward the end of the two-year program, each candidate will present an exhibition of work at the University. This work will be defended orally and will be subject to the approval of a majority of the faculty committee chosen to review it. A Master of Fine Arts paper that clearly articulates a position on issues central in importance to each student’s life in the creative arts must be submitted.

Admission to the program is highly selective. Candidates must demonstrate well-developed abilities in dealing with ideas in the visual arts. A broad preparation in the history of art is required as well as a clear indication of the candidate’s capacity to participate in the academic aspects of the program. A detailed description of requirements for the degree is available from the department via the web: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/cmtes/midway/, or via e-mail: cova@listhost.uchicago.edu.

This text was last revised on 9/08/2003.