oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm, signed top left, in black, "M. Stančić"

Miljenko Stančić was born in Varaždin in 1926. He is one of the most original and technically skilled painters of the second half of the 20th century in Croatia. Morphologically, he relies on the achievements of surrealism, masterfully on Vermeer, baroque and subtly tone painting. He was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he also passed away in 1977. The themes he explored vary from intimate situations and introspective approach to motifs - these are metamorphoses of people dealing with themselves (a painter in front of an easel, or a woman in front of a mirror), gatherings under dim lighting, children's games, or travels in which portly figures chase after trains. His works often feature views of his native Varaždin: silhouettes of old town houses and baroque churches. The melancholic combustion of Stančić's intense colors has written the most expressive page of surrealism in Croatian visual arts, whether you call it late or post-surrealism, because unfortunately, that movement did not establish deeper roots in our visual arts before World War II. This typical Stančić painting depicts a guitarist, and in its tones, in contrast of intense yellow and dark red, we can almost hear the melancholic melody that the painted figure is strumming on the strings. The simple composition of an appealing scene in which the center is made by the yellow rectangle emphasizing the painted figure from shoulders to waist (therefore, the part of the body with which he is playing the guitar) contains numerous reminiscences that music awakens in a person, which is here so skillfully depicted in the picture. FG

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