Painting and Politics with Josephine Wood
8 weeks online course – £240
3 places left book now to avoid disappointment
In these times, political, economic, environmental and social upheaval, this course offers a reappraisal of political painting. We consider ways in which political subjects are represented in painting, the history of political painting and its recent resurgence as subject matter in art.
This is a mostly practical course and is for anyone who is interested in political painting and or wants to develop paintings with political subject matter. We will develop new ways to interpret the political through collage, mark making, different painting techniques, text, landscape and figuration.
Each session will start with a presentation of an artist’s work that will lead onto practical tasks. At the end of each session there will be time set aside for feedback and an opportunity to show your work. This 8-week course is suitable for those with experience of painting as well as enthusiastic beginners.
Themes over the course
- Russian Constructivism and propaganda
- German post war painting
- Black Power – oppression and resistance in painting
- Capitalism, corruption, greed and power in painting
- Identity Politics in new figurative painting
The course sessions will include
- Introduction to politics in painting and Russian Constructivism.
- Post war German painting
- Black Power in painting
- Leon Golub – Monster figures
- The Body and Identity – recent figurative painting
About Josephine Woods
Josephine was born and lives in London, UK. She has exhibited widely in the UK and Internationally, in and outside of mainstream galleries, including Kunstraum Riehen, Basel, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Turps Gallery, London, Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow, The Horse Hospital, London, Vitrine Gallery, London, Global Art Container Gallery, Tallinn and Mishenmarche Gallery, Berlin. In 2022 she was commissioned to make a painting for a public billboard as part of the 16.9 Billboard project for Kingsgate Gallery.
Wood’s figurative-abstract paintings are a comical, idiosyncratic take on social and economic realities. There is a distinct socio-political context to her work, particularly in regards to social decline in modern Britain. Her work touches on themes relating to class, consumerism, austerity, desire and failure. In her paintings, the body is an expression of alienation and antagonism.
