Departments_And_Information_About_The_Departments - University of California - Berkeley

The Department of Art Practice was established on the Berkeley campus in 1923. Throughout our history the department's focus has been on the teaching of Fine Arts in a studio setting under the guidance and mentorship of professional artists. With the added advantage of cross-disciplinary study, the department offers a wide range of approaches in painting, printmaking, sculpture/ installation (wood, metal, ceramics, mixed media), video art, performance art and interactive digital art. Since the founding of the University of California in 1869, courses in painting, sculpture and drawing were part of the curricula of the Architecture Department, Drawing and Decorative Arts Department, the Department of Domestic Art and the Department of Drawing and Mapping.

In 1915, Assistant Professor of Decorative Design in the Department of Domestic Art, Eugene Neuhaus, lectured on art at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. His lectures at the Exposition and during the years following the Exposition generated so much state-wide interest in contemporary fine art that by 1923 the Department of Art Practice was established on the Berkeley campus under the Chairmanship of Professor Eugene Neuhaus. In the 1930's and 1940's, Oliver Washburn, Stephen Pepper and Worth Ryder also served as department Chairs.

During the department's 1930 and 1931 summer sessions, Hans Hoffmann electrified students and the Bay Area community with his concepts on modern art and subsequently donated 45 of his paintings to the UC Berkeley. These paintings became the basis for the Berkeley Art Museum's permanent Hans Hoffmann collection. Internationally recognized artist, Chiura Obata, was a member of the Art Practice faculty from 1932 - 1954. In addition to Hoffmann and Obata, the department's faculty has historically included national and internationally acclaimed artists such as: Boyd Allen, Elmer Bischoff, Christopher Brown, Joan Brown, Willem DeKooning, Walter de Maria, Stephen De Staebler, Mark Di Suvero, David Hockney, Tom Holland, Karl Kasten, Sylvia Lark, James Melchert, George Miyasaki, David Park, Mark Rothko, Felix Ruvolo Jacques Schnier, Charles Simonds, David Simpson and Peter Voulkos. The department's current resident faculty are Richard Shaw, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Anne Healy, Katherine Sherwood, Squeak Carnwath, Shawn Brixey. and Greg Niemeyer.

Nationally recognized artist Claire Falkenstein studied in the Art Practice Department in the 1930's. Today you can view Claire's stained glass windows and doors in Los Angeles at St. Basil's Church. The list of artists with major national and international reputations who have studied in the department over the years is endless, included among these artists are: Pat Adams, Rich Arnitz, John Beech, Shirley Carter, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Enrique Chagoya, Pauletta Chanco, Robert Colescott, Jay de Feo, Rene de Guzman, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Nancy Genn, Mary Heilmann, Kathleen Jessie, Marilyn Levine, Deborah Oropallo, Emmy Lou Packard, Joel Perlmann. Janis Provisor, Merl Ross, Rudy Serra, Rick Soss, Mark Thompson, Tree Williams, Helen Wills and Andrew Young.

The department's alumni have used their UC Berkeley training in the visual fine arts as a springboard to a variety of careers in advertising, fashion design, gallery entrepreneurship, film editing, film production, graphics, publishing and theater/film set design and construction. Our alumni have gone on to teach at the Academy of Art College,

Alfred University, Bennington College, California College of Arts and Crafts, California State University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Chicago Art Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Memphis State University, Notre Dame University, Parsons School of Design, Princeton University, Rutgers University, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco School of Art, San Francisco State University, Stanford University, University of California, University of Minnesota and Yale University.

http://art.berkeley.edu/rev2/department/index.html

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