Piešiame Pelėdų kalne: Kauno meno mokyklos įkūrimo 100-mečiui

The book “Drawing on the Hill of Owls” is dedicated to the centenary of the Kaunas School of Arts. It presents the history of drawing as a teaching course, which began at the Kaunas School of Arts and continued in various institutions that have taken over its traditions. The book also reveals the tortuous development of the schools situated on the Hill of Owls, the life of teachers and students, and the peculiarities of the study programmes implemented, which were influenced by political, cultural, and art events. The manifold context of the Hill of Owls is presented, i.e., the artistic transformations that took place here, the charismatic personalities who were associated with the schools and “bred” andshaped the genius loci, the heritage environment of the site, the spirit that was undoubtedly felt by the artists who worked and studied here for many years. However, the dominant line is drawing as a study course. There are two reasons for such a choice of the object of the discussion. Firstly, art history, the remaining archival documents, living testimonies, and specific artefacts make it obvious that all of the art education institutions on the Hill of Owls undoubtedly treated drawing as one of the most significant courses of the utmost importance in the teaching process. The second reason is factual. The schools situated on the Hill of Owls have been collecting and preserving a valuable collection of drawings for many years, which, as the 100th anniversary of the Kaunas School of Arts approached, inspired a very large album in the publication (which reproduces more than 400 pieces of artwork). The drawings in the collection help comprehend the teaching methods used by the teachers and the programmes implemented by the schools on the Hill of Owls, their changes, students’ abilities, models, and the stylistic manners manifested in the artworks. The students’ drawings, revised by the teachers, have become significant witnesses of drawing achievements and reveal the first steps of painters on the path of art, no matter where they were made, at the Kaunas School of Arts, Kaunas S. Žukas Technical School of Applied Arts, or the Academy of Arts of the Faculty of Arts and Education of Kaunas University of Applied Sciences. A glimpse at the institutions described in the book reveals that the first of them, the Kaunas School of Art, treated drawing as a very important, basic subject. The school was home to many painters who developed individual methods of teaching drawing, which helped students in both the General and Special Departments master this discipline properly and creatively. The exceptional understanding and communication of drawing were also preserved in the next stages, when the schools on the Hill of Owls functioned in the unfavourable Soviet political system that stifled more interesting art positions,teaching innovations, original drawings, and the manifestation of nationality. The then-existing model of “socialist realism” and the ideological pressing in Lithuania halted the natural evolution of art and established the obligatory realistic imagination in the principles of representation for a few decades of the 20th century. Experimentation in art was forbidden in schools, and more modern explorations or intellectual treatment of art were not allowed to flourish. Nevertheless, even under such conditions, the Kaunas Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, as well as Kaunas S. Žukas Technical School of Applied Arts, sought a variety of ways of representation, the diversity of genres, the purposefulness of tasks, and ultimately, a deeper understanding of the concept of art. In this respect, many of the drawing teachers at the Kaunas Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts and Kaunas S. Žukas Technical School of Applied Arts continued the traditions of the Kaunas School of Arts, ready to broaden the professional horizons and improve young artists’ technical drawing skills to the best of their ability. The drawings in the book help capture the panorama of different epochs and reveal the impact of the programmes of the schools of different academic statuses on the results. The changes reflected in the drawings were conditioned by both the historical and ideological contexts and the specificities of theschools. The latter can be traced through the plastic solutions of the artworks: the setting, the mastery of nature, the acquisition of classical plaster model tasks, the use of plastic tools (perspective, light shadow, shape, volume, stroke, line, contour), and the development of technique. The beginning of the album is dominated by drawings typical of classical genres and themes. These include antique plaster copies, figural compositions, portraits, nudes, still life, and, to a lesser extent, landscapes and daily life compositions. Over the decades, the artworks became much less linked to the classics of traditional genres and reflected the changing field of drawing themes and stylistic tools. The images of recent years show richer drawing techniques and the combination of different means of expression. Colours are not avoided, and more contemporary formats are used. It is obvious that in the panorama of contemporary art, the possibilities of drawing are perceived differently. Conceptual expression reveals a new mission of drawing, which is often perceived as a way of communication, a separate picture, a composition conveying an expanded artistic narrative. The drawing that captured realistic forms is often replaced by an expression of images encoded with signs or associations. Digital technologies, also based on drawing competencies, are nowadays clearly considered a privileged space for practising art. These processes are obvious in the recent objectives of the academic staff of the Academy of Art of the Faculty of Arts and Education of Kaunas University of Applied Sciences and students’ completed artworks. The drawings in the album are arranged chronologically, so the processes of change and complexity in the technique, method of execution, and plastic solutions of the works can be seen quite clearly. The book as a whole undoubtedly broadens the history of art education in Lithuania, deepens the cultural memory, and contributes to understanding the overall picture of the art education institutions of the Hill of Owls.