Courses by the renowned artist and art historianDmitry Gutov
Dmitry Gutov has crafted a series of mini-courses just for our school. From them, you'll learn:
- How to add meaning, ideas, and your own vision to your paintings to make them memorable
- Why, out of two similar paintings from the same era, one is considered a masterpiece and the other just "ordinary"
- What to change in your work so it's not just "ordinary" but catches the viewer's eye
- What to pay attention to at exhibitions and how to evaluate others' works
Leading contemporary artist
Instructor
- His works are in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, and the State Center for Contemporary Art
- Art historian and theorist, lectures worldwide
- Participant in the Venice Biennale and other exhibitions: "Manifesta" in Rotterdam, biennales in Istanbul and Shanghai, "Documenta" in Kassel, and over 120 others
- Finalist for the Kandinsky Prize in 2008 in the "Project of the Year" category
Mini-courses
1. Composition in Painting
ВAn artist's and art historian's view of a painting is quite different from that of a regular viewer.
ВWhat's the essence of this difference? A professional sees not just the depicted world and objects, but how they interact with the painting's surface.
ЯAn apple in a still life, moved just a couple of centimeters to the side, can either improve or worsen the work. Composition can be beautiful, or it can be weak, loose, and meaningless.
ТThe course of three lectures by Dmitry Gutov will be dedicated to learning how to see these nuances in painting.
Mini-course «Composition in Painting» includes:
Lecture01
How Artists See the World: Secrets of Composition in PaintingDuration 1 hour
We reveal the basics of composition, how artists perceive a blank canvas, and create harmony through geometric structures, diagonals, and centers.
Lecture02
Diagonals in Art: How Line Direction Changes the Meaning of a PaintingDuration 1 hour
We delve into working with diagonals, showing how movement direction in composition affects the emotional perception and meaning of the work.
Lecture03
Movement and Balance: How Artists Create Dynamics in Their WorksDuration 1 hour
We discuss the interaction of movement and stillness in composition, and how artists use contrasts and directions to create harmony and drama.
2. Perspective in Painting
The essence of the painting paradox is that it conveys a three-dimensional world on a flat surface. We live in a world where everything has volume: any apple, tree, face. For millennia, everyone who depicted anything tackled this problem. And they solved it in very different ways. Learning to draw this is largely about mastering the laws of transferring depth to a plane, which we traditionally convey with the concept of perspective.
In our course of three lectures, we will explore various solutions to this problem. We'll find out what reverse and direct perspective are, what aerial and tonal perspective are, what the horizon line is, and its significance in art.
Mini-course «Perspective in Painting» includes:
Lecture01
Perspective: How Artists Create the Illusion of Depth on a Flat CanvasDuration 1 hour
We discuss how direct and reverse perspective help convey the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional plane. We explore why these techniques are so important for creating realistic and symbolic images.
Lecture02
Horizon Line and Perspective: How Artists Guide the Viewer’s EyeDuration 1 hour
We reveal the secrets of how the horizon line and perspective affect composition and the emotional perception of a painting. We learn to use high, low, and central horizon lines to create different effects, from grandeur to intimacy.
Lecture03
Depth of Field and Aerial Perspective: How Artists Create the Illusion of RealityDuration 1 hour
We explore how depth of field and aerial perspective help convey the illusion of real space. We learn how blurring, color transitions, and light effects create a sense of depth and atmosphere in painting.
3. Light and Shadow in Painting
We see the world only because there is light in it. In absolute darkness, neither vision nor painting can exist. But if we find ourselves in a space flooded with blinding light, we also won't see anything. It's no coincidence that such light is called blinding, meaning equal to blindness.
Painting is always a mix of light and shadow in different proportions. In our mini-course, we'll look at how artists over the centuries have worked with this problem and what solutions they've found.
Mini-course «Light and Shadow in Painting» includes:
Lecture01
How Artists Use Light and Shadow to Create DepthDuration 1 hour
We learn how light and shadow became the main tools for artists to convey emotions, volume, and space, from ancient times to the Renaissance.
Lecture02
How Light and Shadow Bring Paintings to Life: Secrets of Renaissance MastersDuration 1 hour
We study how artists from Giotto to Caravaggio used light and shadow to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat canvas.
Lecture03
Light and Shadow: How Artists Created Masterpieces Through ContrastsDuration 1 hour
We explore how light and shadow transformed from a technical technique into a powerful tool for conveying emotions and creating dramatic effects in painting.
4. Composition Tricks: Cropping, Visual Rhymes, Foreground Cut-Offs
In this mini-course, we’re diving into the secrets of building a beautiful painting, exploring the key composition principles that make artwork so expressive and harmonious.
We’ll break down how artists use cropping to create a balanced and eye-catching image, how visual rhymes—repeating elements—boost the way we see a painting and set the mood, and how foreground cut-offs—those accents up front—help guide our eyes and add a sense of depth.
With examples from famous works of art, we’ll see how these tricks work together, turning a painting into a real visual story, full of meaning and emotion.
Here’s what’s inside the mini-course «Composition Techniques: Framing, Visual Rhymes, Foreground Cut-Off»:
Lecture01
Mystical Boundaries: How Artists Separate the Sacred from the EverydayDuration 1 hour
We’ll see how the great masters create distance between the viewer and the artwork using steps, shadows, and balustrades.
Lecture02
The Art of Framing: How Cropping Creates MeaningDuration 1 hour
We’ll uncover the secrets of pro-level composition—what every artist needs to know about framing and visual accents.
Lecture03
The Geometry of Masterpieces: How Artists Create Visual RhymesDuration 1 hour
We’ll dive into the compositional tricks of the greats: how repeating shapes and echoes help guide your eye and make a piece feel harmonious.
5. Painting Techniques
In this mini-course, we’re diving into the world of painting techniques, where every era has left behind its own unique secrets.
We’ll check out the key painting methods: from the golden rules of icon painting to the graphic precision of engravings, explore the transparency of watercolor and the richness of gouache, the energy of oil brushstrokes, and also break down how stained glass, frescoes, and encaustic art are made. We’ll get into the details of working with pastel and the art of capturing light with charcoal.
Looking at works by masters from different times, we’ll see how technical skills can turn simple materials into real masterpieces.
Contents of the «Painting Techniques» mini-course:
Lecture01
Pigment, glue, and light: the three pillars holding up all of world painting.Duration 1 hour
We’ll figure out what paint is really made of, and see how the simple chemistry of pigment and binder gives birth to so many different techniques—from disappearing water drawings to eternal frescoes and glowing stained glass.
Lecture02
Egg tempera, gesso, and gold: what Russian icons are really made of.Duration 1 hour
We’ll dive into the world of icon workshops to see how every element was created—from the first sketch and underdrawing to the highlights and real gold leaf, and how simple craft turned into theology in color.
Lecture03
Oil painting: How one technique changed art forever.Duration 1 hour
We’ll trace how the invention of oil paint let artists move from flat icons to the illusion of a real world, full of light, texture, and life.
Lecture04
A 500-year history of drawing materials.Duration 1 hour
We’ll see what makes drawing different from painting, and where the line between them really is. We’ll look at working with watercolor, all kinds of pencils, pens and inks, different types of printmaking, and pastel work.
6. The Roots of Modern Art in the 19th Century
This mini-course will show how the revolutionary ideas of the 19th century—from rebellious Romanticism to bold Impressionism—broke academic rules and set the stage for modern art.
We’ll follow how artists like Delacroix, Manet, and Van Gogh challenged traditions, turning art into a playground for daring experiments. We’ll break down the key works that shocked audiences but changed everything: from color and form to the very idea of what a “masterpiece” is. Plus, we’ll see how scientific discoveries, social upheavals, and new technologies shaped art, making the 19th century a true point of no return.
By the end of the course, we’ll look at familiar paintings as manifestos of their time, where every brushstroke is a step toward the modern world.
Contents of the «Origins of Modern Art in the 19th Century» mini-course:
Lecture01
Art vs. the bourgeoisie: Why artists started to shock the public.Duration 1 hour
We’ll find out why 19th-century France became the epicenter of art scandals, and how the fight for real life gave birth to all of modern art.
Lecture02
How the Impressionists cracked the code of classical painting in just 20 years.Duration 1 hour
We’ll break down the Impressionists’ big discovery—ditching the three-step technique (drawing-underpainting-glazing) for direct painting, where brushstroke, color, and shape all happen at once.
Lecture03
Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh: the three who cleared the way for the Black SquareDuration 1 hour
We’ll find the roots of modern art, performance, and installations in the desperate moves of artists who, on the eve of World War I, deliberately «killed» the classical painting.
7. Modernism of the 20th Century
In this mini-course, we’ll follow how, in the 20th century, artists boldly broke with the past to create something totally new.
We’ll see why the usual forms of art suddenly stopped satisfying creators, and how scientific discoveries and social upheavals changed their worldview. We’ll talk about the daring experiments of Kandinsky and Malevich, and how modernists rethought the very meaning of creativity.
This course will help us understand why works that once shocked the public are now considered classics, and how ideas from a hundred years ago still inspire today’s artists.
Contents of the «Painting Techniques» mini-course:
Lecture01
Cubism, Futurism, Abstraction: How the language of the 20th century was born—and why it still confuses people.Duration 1 hour
We’ll dive into the era of scandals and find out why works by Picasso and Malevich shocked people raised on the classics, and how that changes the way we see art today.
Lecture02
The Black Square: how emptiness became the main icon of 20th-century art.Duration 1 hour
We’ll figure out what’s so genius about the «Black Square» besides the hype, and why a simple urinal bought at a store became more important than technically perfect paintings of the past, marking the end of one era and the start of another.
Lecture03
Art on the edge: Surrealism, Freud’s nightmares, and the feeling of a new war coming.Duration 1 hour
We’ll peek into the studios of the era’s main provocateurs: Mondrian, who closed his curtains against beautiful sunsets, and Dalí, who turned those sunsets into nightmares. We’ll get what they were arguing about—with the world and with each other.
