In the Art Department of the Marijampolė Art School (MMM), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year (the Kapsukas Art School was founded in 1974), the Sūduva region students’ art Olympiad “Portraits of Famous People of the Sūduva Region” was organized. It is also dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the restoration of the name of the city of Marijampole. The event was attended by 28 students not only from our city, but also from Kalvarija, Vilkaviškis district.
As the teacher of this school, the artist Neringa Krivičienė, said, the idea of a similar project (competition) has been brewing for a long time. In the end, it was decided not to organize a competition, but an Olympiad, inviting schoolchildren from the entire region to the school commemorating the anniversary.
The portrait genre was not chosen by chance: on the one hand, schoolchildren like to draw (copy) portraits – often of their favorite heroes and stars; and looking at it from the other side, not everyone would dare to create a portrait of a real person… Therefore, after the regulations had already been prepared and sent to the schools, it seemed for a while that there would not be many participants. One of the conditions is homework: to submit a portrait that has not been exposed anywhere, so that the future participant can prepare in advance. However, there was no need to worry because, as mentioned, almost three dozen participants gathered.
“It’s not easy when it comes to posers either. Although there are certainly not one or two people worth paying attention to here, but by inviting them to such an action, it is as if you invade their normal life and work, said Neringa Krivičienė. – And it’s not easy to stay those few hours posing. Happily, when it was all over, both sides seemed happy with the new experience. Darius Rakauskas, the representative of the Kaunas Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, who was in the evaluation committee, was impressed with the overall result and the strong works of the students.”
The young creators, divided into three groups by age, created portraits for three hours. Ona Birutė Surdokienė, the head of the artist club “Mūza”, the coordinator of the project “Pasauli sūduviečiai”, photographer, museologist Romas Linionis and Joris Pauliukaitis, an active and enterprising high school student of Rygiškii John’s gymnasium, posed for them. After three hours of work, not only the artists, but also the models admitted that both drawing a live model and posing are not as easy as it might seem from the outside. It was no less difficult for the evaluators: the already mentioned Darius Rakauskas, Rasa Naujaliena, dr. Valentin Butanavičius and Asta Strašauskienei.
In the youngest group (13-14 years old), the first place was awarded to Henrieta Akelaityta (representative of the art school of the Christian Culture Center, her teacher Lina Endriukaitienė). In second place – St. Milda Kriaužlytė (teacher Skirmantė Makarevičienė) is a pupil of Cecilija Gymnasium, the third place went to MMM pupil Elvita Butkauskaitei – her teacher Neringa Krivičienė.
In the senior group (14-15 years old) the first place was also awarded to Ema Mickuta, a student of this teacher, the second place also to MMM student Austėja Leonavičiūta (teacher Jūratė Preikšienė), and the third place to Goda Pileckyta, a student of Kalvarija Art School (teacher Ilona Šidlauskienė).
The third group is 16-17-year-old young developers, some of whom have already graduated from MMM. Here, the work of Sofija Sadauskaitė (teacher Birutė Talalajeva), a high school student of Marijonų Gymnasium, was recognized as the best. The portrait created by the representative of Kalvarija Art School Aura Bingelytė (teacher Ilona Šidlauskienė) took the second place, the third place went to Leja Nazmudinovaita from Sūduva Gymnasium (teacher Loreta Žaliauskienė).
The winners were congratulated and awarded by MMM director Valentinas Butanavičius, the evaluators of the works, thanks to all participants and their teachers. It is likely that the first swallow will not be the only one: the organizers gained experience, and the participants (and their teachers) gained courage.
Lina Volungytė
