Portraying a person, drawing, painting, and modeling according to a living model has been a part of art education throughout the ages, and the Estonian Academy of Arts and its predecessors are no exception here. The catalog prepared for the 110th birthday of the Estonian Academy of Arts brings together 130 studies created in the studios of the academy: standing, sitting or lying nudes and clothed models, figure groups, drawings of hands and feet, anatomical details. The selection shows how diversely and with different emphases it is possible to portray a person. Side by side, there are academic pictures with elaborate backgrounds as well as gigantic human images that break the existing canons at the turn of the millennium.
In addition to the relevant historical overview, the book includes interviews with drawing teachers – Tiit Pääsuke, Matti Pärk, Maiu Rõõmus, Maria-Kristiina Ulas, Ülle Marks, Tõnis Saadoja – who discuss the necessity and meanings of learning to depict a person. The interviews are complemented by Britta Benno’s essayistic discussion about figure drawing at the Academy of Arts, and the reminiscences of Peeter Ulas and Herald Eelma collected by Jüri Hain from their student days.
Compiled by Reeli Kõiv
Translated by Epp Aarelei
Copy editor: Elo Rohult
Photos: Madis Kurss
Designed by Studio Studio
288 pages, in Estonian and English
Estonian Academy of Arts Museum, 2024
978-9916-740-19-4