Course 12: Nude
by Merita Selimi
9 – 14 August, 2021
2 ECTS
Application deadline: July 16, 2021.
Course Description
Focusing on the body and gender morphology, the course will explore techniques for drawing the human figure. The body and its structural (physical) volumes are studied in a wide range of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, art history and cultural studies. In performance studies, more specifically, the dialogue between the model (nude figure) and the student's work plays an integral role in negotiating an understanding of the body. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the relationship between drawing and human nature.
Working with students takes place individually as the subject is more personal, and depends on the character and the methodology that each student requires in order to work.
The research work of the student in the subject of nudes is based on an artistic tradition that has been built in the school. But it is also visual research that requires not only the interpretation of nature, but also the development of imagination, personal initiative, creativity, diversity of techniques, pencil, carbon, pen, and the student’s means of expression.
Representing the nude body consists of a multifaceted analysis in which the student explores expressive tools such as line-contour (linear drawing which is the way of line plasticity), by which the drawing is thus formatted by the outer line as an example of the ideal appearance, expressiveness, and character of the model (which lies not only in the similitude but also in the movement of the nude, the way it stands, how this volume stays in space). Drawing by nature aims at the emotional realization of nudity by the visual perception which it consists of;
The nude class necessarily starts from the knowledge of the figure which initially begins with the drawing which is the arc of the imagination, which the student must interpret and not display a copy of. This is related to perspective and anatomy as two disciplines which consist of integrating the teaching part of this subject.
This course invites the student to engage in a dialogue with the object - figure (nude), which means to report on the dimension, shape, anatomical structure, a mastery of which is the basis of starting the curriculum.
Teaching in the nude figure drawing class is based on the methodology that the teacher offers to the student.
Biography
Merita Selimi Spahija is a professor and lecturer in nude drawing at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Tirana. In 2020, she completed her doctoral studies at the Academy of Albanological Studies in Tirana in the department of Ethnology-Folklore, specializing in Ethnology.
She has participated in a large number of collective and personal exhibitions. Her personal exhibitions include an exhibition at the National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, 2000. The collective exhibitions that she has taken part in include "VizArt Time before and after the 90s, “Ambitions” National Arts Gallery in Tirana and National Gallery of Kosovo,2021," Historical Museum, Tirana, 2020, "The Legend of Castle, Marie du 1'er arroundissement de Paris”, Palace of Europe, Strasbourg, 2017, "Art Salon", Shkodra, 2020, in which she was the winner of the first prize, and the National Exhibition of visual arts “Onufri 94”, GKA, Tirana, 1994, in which she was the winner of the first prize for graphics. In 2003, she was a 3-month resident at the “Citte Internationale des Arts”, Paris. France.
Participation
10 participants will be selected to participate in this course. Eligible participants must read the Terms, fill out the application form, upload the required documents and submit the application form. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Scholarships are available for participants from Kosovo.
A limited number of scholarships, that cover the participation fee, are available for international participants.