Swansea College of Art Fine Art students undertake research trip to Madrid

11 December 2023

Fine Art students from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Swansea College of Art have visited Madrid to study the unique collections of the Prado Museum, The Thyssen Bornemisza Collection, and the Reina Sofia.

Thirty students and staff from Swansea College of Art stand outside the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Each collection offers students an encounter with works of art that form the backbone of our understanding of visual culture from Medieval art all the way to contemporary making in the 21st Century.

The trip involved 30 students with staff members Alex Duncan, Holly Slingsby, Professor Sue Williams and Freelands Foundation Fellow, Vivian Ross-Smith.

Alex Duncan, Lecturer in Fine Art at UWTSD and Director of Artlacuna, London said: “ Each day one museum was visited, offering the students a chance to spend time with iconic works such as Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, Francisco Goya’s famed black paintings, alongside a temporary exhibition at the Thyssen, Maestras, that brought together works by female artists, who won recognition in their lifetime, only to find themselves written out of the canon; such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt and Paula Modersohn-Becker.

“This was heightened by a visit to contemporary commercial gallery Badr El Jundi, for a conversation with Director Maria Grazia de Pedro who kindly spoke to our students about professional art practice and the transition from studying art to making a career within this subject area.”

UWTSD Fine Art: Studio, Site and Context encompasses a broad approach to fine art teaching where individual artistic practice draws upon, and uses, a wide range of materials, media, concepts, and philosophies.

Studio practice is at its core and involves the use of specialised workshops and personal spaces where concepts are developed through painting, drawing, sculptural practice, video, sound, installation, and performance.

The course encourages all students to consider their position within society, providing an opportunity to work alongside internationally acclaimed artists and lecturers to explore the expanding and forever-evolving field of contemporary fine art practice.