Department of Fine Arts

Department of Fine Arts, Aligarh Muslim University

ललित कला विभाग, अलीगढ मुस्लिम विश्वविद्यालय

Vision:

• The department as a center of excellence in Visual Arts under the Faculty of Visual Arts.
• Set high professional and academic standards in the courses & research.
• Generate high  employability and professionalism.

Mission: 

• To inculcate proficiency in learner to compete with global standards in art.
• To nurture the learner as  confident  self reliance professional/commercial/freelance artist and multi-media expert. 
• To offer inclusive knowledge of intrinsic, traditional, folk and tribal arts as well as modern, post modern and contemporary  art practices and art establishments.
• To expose the learner to new media & inter disciplinary art practices and provide the opportunity to work under senior artists as intern.
• To encourage the learner to establish a connection with the  down-trodden society and  include social issues in their projects.
• To produce qualitative research in Art history and Art criticism. 

About the Department

In Aligarh Muslim University, Fine Art as a subject of study was first introduced at Women's College in 1954. Soon after, the under-graduate programme was offered in 1956 however, the Master Degree in Fine Arts started in 1984. initially the courses were offered to women candidates only under the academic guidance of Prof. Azmat Shah, a renowned artist of India who had accomplished his studies from Lucknow College of Arts.

Fine Arts as full-fledged department was established in 1988 in the Faculty of Arts. The department introduced two professional courses, Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 1993 and the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)  in1998. The research Degrees, M. Phil and Ph.D. were started in the department from 1993. At present, we offer B.V.A. & M.V.A. in Painting and Ph.D. 

The teaching program in the department is focused on quality results in both creative painting and research.  Periodic updating of syllabi in accordance with the relevance and advancement of knowledge of the subjects taught in the department  is done on regular basis.

In India, the opportunities in the field of creative art and culture have witnessed multifold increase. Today, an art student seeks excellence in creative vision as well as perfection in the skills. To provide better access to its learners, the department is in the process of introducing  post graduate specialized courses MVA in Applied Arts and MVA in Art History. These courses will improve the quality  of Ph.D. research in the area of Ancient, Medieval,  Contemporary  and Traditional art of India & the world as well as  will improve  our students as professional artists.

A society  or a nation can not be imagined without its art and culture. To understand a civilisation one needs to study the Visual arts and artefacts produced by its artists through the ages. Art practices through the times have crossed many levels to reach in to a new environment, which is full of innovation, experiments and interventions of different disciplines. Today education in art  for any Institution is equally  important as science or any other  area of studies  or discipline. 

The education of art in an institution of national importance, like AMU, definitely enriches the learner in a multidimensional ways, therefore, a multidimensional approach towards art is aimed in our department. 

The faculty members of the department  have proved their caliber in both research & the creative arts by their  publications and  participations in national and international seminars, conferences and workshops, solo and collective shows throughout the country as well as at UK, USA, Germany and Egypt.

The students of the Department are making their presence felt in the field of art at state and national levels through achieving awards, scholarships, active participation in workshops, group and solo shows and participations in Kochi Binnale and Youth Festivals. The faculty members have been taking utmost care to groom their students more effectively by establishing close student - teacher contact.

Moinuddin Ahmad Art Gallery

The prestigious Moinuddin Ahmad Art Gallery of Aligarh Muslim University is a privileged option for the students and Teachers of  Department of Visual Arts to organise  and participate in exhibitions, workshops, residencies and variety of collaborative programmes since 17th  October 2013 after its  inaugurated by Dr. Aziz Quraishi, Hon'ble Governor of Uttrakhand on the eve of Sir Syed Day.

Apart from developing a permanent collection the management of the gallery is committed for regular events and programmes specially designed for the benefits of the emerging artists and students of Aligarh Muslim University and visiting artists. For the holistic development of the gallery and the art in this region several comprehensive plans and programmes of national and international levels such as Group and Solo Shows, artist workshops, residencies, lectures and demonstrations of invited artists and various interactive programmes in collaborations are being organised on regular basis.

                                                                               Annual Art Exhibition-2022