The Painting programme invites you to explore painting as both a practice and a conceptual space for artistic research. From a ‘painterly perspective’ within a studio-based programme, you will investigate materials, methods, and concepts in cultural and historical contexts, while engaging in critical dialogues with diverse approaches to painting. Whether you draw on traditional methods or experimental and expanded practices, this programme encourages you to push boundaries and create meaningful, relevant, and resonant work. 

Why choose this programme?

By choosing the Painting programme, you are embracing a journey fuelled by curiosity and an openness to painting as an expanded practice. Here, you’ll investigate painting to explore, question, and reimagine through multiple perspectives. The programme offers an environment where you can put both your existing and developing skills into practice, connecting them to cultural, historical, and societal frameworks. The Master’s programme fosters experimentation, dialogue, reflection, and critical inquiry, empowering you to deepen and innovate your practice and create meaningful work. 

Study structure

• Year 1: Exploring your chosen field 

The first year of the Painting programme is a dynamic period of discovery and self-reflection. It offers a rich blend of activities designed to help students explore and deepen their practice from multiple angles. This year is ideal for those open to questioning and expanding their artistic approach, even if they continue to explore and shape their direction. Through this investigative process, you will cultivate a keen sense of self-awareness that will shape how you approach your work in the future. 

You’ll participate in both programme-specific and shared activities and classes, where you’ll engage in meaningful dialogues and critical exchanges on pressing topics in contemporary arts. At the core of the programme are Studio Work, weekly Seminars, and monthly Roundtables. The Seminars are geared towards presenting and challenging your work and viewpoints, encouraging you to consider different perspectives and fostering a critical awareness of your work and its relationship to the world around you. The Roundtables provide a space to discuss and debate important artistic, cultural, and societal issues, giving everyone a voice and an opportunity to challenge conventional ideas and push creative boundaries. You’ll expand on these concepts by sharing classes with students from other programmes, covering artistic research methods, presenting work and research, and exploring a range of contemporary discursive contexts. 

• Year 2: Achieving your artistic goals 

In the second year of the Painting programme, the focus shifts towards the development of your final project and thesis. Building on the exploratory work of the first year, this phase centers on refining your artistic voice and delving deeply into a specific research question or theme. The emphasis is on translating your accumulated knowledge and self-awareness into a cohesive, meaningful body of work that reflects your unique perspective. 

This period of concentrated, self-driven inquiry encourages you to push your ideas further by balancing creative ambition with reflective research and conceptual grounding. Regular critiques and one-on-one sessions with tutors will support you in refining your approach and gaining clarity on the direction of your work. Throughout the year, you will work on your thesis, receive guidance, and peer feedback in articulating your ideas through writing, contextual research, and critical analysis. 

By the end of the second year, you will have created a substantial final project that synthesises your research, artistic development, and critical understanding, ready to present to an audience. 

Admission procedure

• Step 1: Enrol in Studielink

To enrol in this master's degree programme, submit an enrolment application through Studielink (studielink.nl). On the enrolment form, under the master's programme, select 'Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design' at Hanze and then either MADtech, Painting, iRAP or MAPs in step 4. You will receive by email a login link and details for the 'Hanze Apply' and details of the documents we require from you.

• Step 2: Hanze Apply

Answer the questions and upload the requested documents: Under "Entrance Minerva" you have to upload the portfolio and other requested documents. The application form and additional information can also be found in the Hanze Apply. Under "International students" you have to upload your passport/ID card, diploma, etc. After everything has been filled out and uploaded, click on the "submit application" button.

• Step 3: Interview

After we have received your application form and portfolio, the admissions committee will assess your application documents and decide whether to invite you for an interview. If you live abroad and cannot come to Groningen for this, we can conduct the interview by Microsoft Teams.