Three Policies Department of Painting, Graphic Arts Course
Purposes and Educational Goals (Diploma Policy)
The Graphic Arts Course aims to develop free ideas and new value in a wide range of art and design fields both traditional and cutting-edge, and to foster artists with the power to break new ground in the future.
Replication and distribution technology underpins today’s society in the information age, and in the past, it was printing technology that played this role. It is valid to say that the advent of this technology fundamentally changed people's lives. Such technical innovation is the essence of printmaking, which has a long history in both Eastern and Western civilization, and in the age of duplicative technology, printmaking has developed as an artistic medium. Also, printmaking has historically been deeply linked with design and has become a bridge between art and design. In today’s digital age, photography and computer graphics are also regarded as part of printmaking, and new forms of prints are being produced. In this way, printmaking remains a field that spans a wide variety of genres and transcends habituated ways of thinking.
Based on the innovative and interdisciplinary nature of printmaking, the Graphic Arts Course prioritizes the ability to observe the essence of things from a broad perspective, as well as to develop artists who can achieve the educational and research goals of the Faculty of Art and Design. To develop autonomous thinking ability that is not swayed by a blizzard of information, to plan from a free viewpoint, and to realize one’s idea effectively with the solid ability to execute, students should be able to expand their creative potential to encompass tradition and the cutting edge across a broad spectrum of art and design. Students who have achieved this goal receive bachelor’s (BFA) degrees.
Curriculum Policy
In the Graphic Arts Course, curricula are organized and implemented systematically based on the following policies, so that students can achieve the goals shown in the Diploma Policy.
In introductory classes, students learn art from a broad perspective by studying various modes of visual art, discovering their own potential, and acquiring the basic skills necessary for four-year study.
In the introductory first and second year courses, in the first year students try their hands at four printmaking techniques, and during the second year they make prints using their specialized or interdisciplinary training in these techniques, based on the issues that concern them, exploring various possibilities for self-expression. They also learn the basics of photography and digital technologies and explore the possibilities of photographic and new printmaking techniques.
In the specialized courses in the third and fourth years, students select one technique from a workshop with four printmaking techniques plus photography, continue researching specialized skills to deepen their study of their selected theme, and work on a graduation project as a culmination of their studies thus far. At the same time, they study how to connect their art to society through research on art books and printing designs, which has a close historical relationship with printmaking, and explore the diverse paths they will follow after graduation.
The Graphic Arts Course deals with traditional printmaking, cutting-edge printmaking, and application to design, and organizes systematic curricula to realize comprehensive integration of these three areas.
To evaluate the results of study, rigorous grading is carried out based on criteria specified in advance. These results are then utilized for further improvement of educational methods.
Admissions Policy
Based on the academic contents of the Diploma Policy and Curriculum Policy, the Graphic Arts Course seeks students who can proactively explore the possibilities of their own expression in a wide range of art and design without being bound by narrow thinking, boldly trying new things without fear of failure.
The Graphic Arts Course’s specialized examinations gauge the ability to observe objects, capture their characteristics and express them with a personal approach, take objects as a point of departure for free thought and expansion, express images, edit photographic materials, create new value and meaning, etc., focusing on fundamental power of expression in the visual arts, including ability to focus and improve the work’s degree of sophistication, latent individual potential talent and so on, which are evaluated comprehensively using various test methods including drawing, collage, color usage, etc.
There is no end of possibilities for each student, and in expanding their education after enrolling in the program, how they expand on these possibilities is of vital importance. To that end, we hope they will try various things boldly without setting limits for themselves.