Specialized Training

During the 19th century, the ‘Academy for Fine Arts’ developed into a thorough, though rather boring, technical training. For example, students would work for months on a study in grisaille of a plaster cast, or on a sketch of a nude model. There was very little attention for the personal preferences of students – ideal images were presented as examples and whoever could copy them best was the best pupil.
During the 20th century there was a change of culture, and certainly after 1960 the term ‘Academician’ virtually became a swearword. Vast quantities of plaster casts of statues and ornaments vanished into the dustbin; technical training was as good as banished. And the results are clearly visible.
The Klassieke Academie wants to reintroduce the professional training of the ancient Academy, but a more compact one, and one that is better attuned to the personal talents of the students.

Unlike the Basic Training, the Specialized Training has an admissions procedure.
The teachers of the Klassieke Academie assess the merits of the candidates on the basis of work, an assignment and an interview. There is room for 20 new students a year. The Specialized Training takes three years.

During the first year, three half days a week will be devoted to practical lessons, supplemented by a half day of theory and a number of workshops (digital technologies, photography). The lessons concentrate on the basic principles of the profession: composition (both formal methods and expressive arrangement), form (related to the human figure and human anatomy) and tonality (linked with perspective and plasticity). Students are offered an art-historical overview down to the start of the 20th century, as well as an optional Photoshop course.

The second year will deal with painting of all types, techniques and materials (four half days of painting). There will also be three workshops on graphics: woodcuts and linocuts, etching and lithography. The lessons will concentrate on knowledge of the materials and the construction of a painting, ways of painting, applying perspective and an introduction to colour use. The art-historical overview will deal with developments during the 20th century.

The third year of the Specialized Training will be rounded off with particular attention to expression and artistic approaches, as well as special attention for watercolour techniques. Here, too, 4 half days will be spent painting, supplemented by lessons in looking at art.