Art - Pictorial Art

Overview

The Art - Pictorial Art MFA program from San José State University prepares students to analyze and research visual and conceptual problems and both apply and explain their sophisticated use of the elements and principles of art to solve those problems. Our graduates will be artists capable of studio practice and exhibition at the professional level.

Graduates with Art, Concentration in Pictorial Art from San José State University will be able to:

• demonstrate increased technical capabilities and skills relevant to their areas of expertise and be able to explain and evaluate success/failure in individual and group critiques. We expect our graduates to be lifelong problem-identifiers and problem-solvers, always on the lookout for new and better skills. Prior to participation in a final thesis exhibition, MFA candidates will already have demonstrated their skills in portfolio reviews, frequent faculty and peer critiques, evaluations by thesis committee members, and in solo and group exhibitions.

• demonstrate their commitment to valuing art’s role in offering cultural critique and addressing issues of social responsibility in a global society. As creative professionals, our graduates will, we hope, assume leadership roles in engaging with social and cultural change–as teachers, as critics, as spokespersons for important issues which cannot yet be imagined. As graduate students, our MFA candidates will demonstrate their understanding of the values of contemporary art in their visual and written responses to class assignments in area and interdisciplinary seminars and in the successful articulation of their ideas in exhibitions and artist statements.

• apply their knowledge of visual history and theory to their creative endeavors and to their professional practice. They will be able to speak and write clearly about art and global culture and demonstrate their understanding of the contemporary and global art world. They will demonstrate their ability to place their own work within the broader context of historical and contemporary art and theory. Our graduates will commit to continued personal engagement with intellectual issues in contemporary art and culture.