Some notes on the "best" schools for fine art

kaelyn
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:14:08 +0000

So I began compiling that statistical data that I mentioned earlier and there are so many ways to look at things. What I decided to do for now is simply compile a list of early and mid career contemporary artists (with a few older heads thrown in) who have garnered some degree of popularity. I will preface this list by saying that I myself am not yet in art school nor am I some kind of art guru and as such can not make any claim of this list being exhaustive or even that well informed. My findings for undergrad schools are far from conclusive and should not serve as a definitive guide to choosing undergrad schools anyway. As is true of many fields, potential career success is more easily correlated with graduate programs than undergrad programs. The list is completely up for discussion and additions/subtractions. All it can possibly demonstrate is which schools are more popular than others. I’m aware that this list contradicts my earlier proclamations though, in my defence, I will say that the previous list was based on the general constitution of high profile galleries like peres projects, blum and poe, gladstone gallery, deitch etc. I might provide some evidence for this at another moment of industriousness.

RISD
Huma Bhabba
Whitney Bedford
Joe Bradley
Roni Horn
Dan Colen
Ryan Trecartin

Cooper
Verne Dawson
Wangechi Mutu
Francesca diMattio
Matthew Monnahan
Zak Smith

SFAI
Aaron Young
Catherine Opie
Paul McCarthy
Kehinde Wiley

SMFA:
Kristin Baker
Jedediah Caesar
Philip Lorca diCorcia

SVA
Elizabeth Peyton
Collier Schorr
Barnaby Furnas
David LaChapelle
Andrea Fraser

MICA
Whitney Bedford
Carter
Jeff Coons

SAIC
Josh Brand
Sterling Ruby
Fischerspooner

Bard
Walead Beshty
RH Quaytman

Wesleyan
Rachel Harrison
Glenn Ligon

Calarts
Mark Bradford
Eric Fischl

Carnegie Mellon
John Currin
Ryan McGuinness

Brown
Gedi Sibony
Elizabeth Neel

Art Center
Doug Aitken

CCA
Jason Rhoades
Jules deBalincourt

Pratt
Mickalene Thomas

My conclusion: Go wherever is best for you…
unless it’s pratt. don’t go to pratt.

Coming soon: the grad list