TRIBECA — A longtime TriBeCa art school has found a new medium for students: Facebook.
The New York Academy of Art, a renowned graduate art academy, will host its first ever Facebook Live, a figure drawing class with a live model taught by three acclaimed New York artists, including Vincent Desiderio, a painter whose artwork was the inspiration for Kanye West's controversial video for his song "Famous."
Desiderio's "Sleep", a 24-foot long, hyper-realistic painting of people lying side-by-side in bed, mostly naked, was the foundation for West's grainy video, a 10-minute piece that featured the likeness of 12 naked celebrities, including Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian West and Taylor Swift, whose wax bodies are huddled close in white sheets.
Desiderio has said he really liked the homage.
Artists Michael Grimaldi, director of the drawing program at the Academy, and Dan Thomas, known for his portrait work, will also lead the Nov. 28 course, a free, three-hour class from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., for whoever wants to tune in.
"Figure drawing is at the heart of our mission, and the Academy decided to livestream a drawing demonstration to both showcase the extraordinary talent of our faculty and to emphasize how necessary art skills are taught here," Angharad Coates, a spokeswoman for the academy told DNAinfo New York in an email. "What sets us apart from other atelier schools however and makes us an MFA program is that we teach traditional techniques and skills with the expectation of creating contemporary art."
"All three instructors are great examples of this — highly trained draughtsmen who at the same time are represented by galleries and are respected contemporary art world figures," she added.
The instructors will be answering questions from the Facebook Live audience in real time.
In the future, the Academy plans on offering several other Facebook Live classes, including courses on painting, sculpture and, potentially, printmaking.
