oil on canvas, 66 x 81.5 cm, signed lower right, in brown, "M. Stančić"

Miljenko Stančić (born in Varaždin in 1926, died in Zagreb in 1977) stands out in Croatian painting of the second half of the 20th century with his poetic scenes, located between reality and dreaming. Tonal painting gives them an additional degree of distance from everyday experience. His paintings are often associated with civic life, entertainment, and everyday celebrations in a small town. Such is the painting 'Socializing with a Musician'. Silhouettes of people at a table emerge from green tones that suggest lighting. All the characters are completely static and their gestures are restrained, as if it was some kind of ritual. The silhouette of a dog lying on the right side also contributes to a sense of tranquility. However, in this slow ceremony, where the harmony of tones also suggests the musical harmony of the musician's chords, there is a premonition of something that transcends an ordinary genre scene from everyday life. Due to the way the characters are painted – like spots formed from subtle tones – they appear as ghosts. We have the impression that they are not present, which is further contributed by the undefined space in which they are located. It is made up only of the articulation of green tones and acts as pure light, like a certain abstract level of existence. Here is depicted a party from memory, or from fantasy, in any case from an unrecoverable past that is embodied in the painting. And the painting itself, is an illusion, a constructed representation, a staging created on a blank canvas. Miroslav Krleža also recognized in the melancholy of Stančić's scenes the realized potential of painting as an art form that manages to portray a mental reality. Despite depicting recognizable characters and situations, Stančić's painting presents the viewer with unusual and occasionally difficult-to-define experiences. Krleža perceives it as "[...] a kind of analytical method undoubtedly deliberately dealing with semi-conscious and subconscious trivia from the circle of human memory." FG

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