41. Peroni [1966.]

The motif of a platform, on which trains arrive and depart, found itself, with all its melancholic associations, in the surreal painting opus of Miljenko Stančić (Varaždin, 1926 - Zagreb, 1977). The space in which the action of this painting takes place is only indicated. It's a space interwoven with sensations of a dream, depicted in Stančić's subtly toned red color, simultaneously glowing but also gentle, as it transitions through states leading from yellow to a deep purple. Everything is quiet, and the shapes (in one, from the right, we can read traces of the architecture of the platform canopy, or, from the left, a wagon with an open door, through which a hand protrudes) and lines intertwine, freely composed, according to the inner consonance that the painter felt in them. Precisely written number three (in the bottom left corner) can also be seen on the painting, as an association with labels on trains or ubiquitous indicators of their arrival and departure times at stations. However, the central place in the painting is occupied by a figure of a sleeping little man with a round face. He is a passenger, a passerby on a platform, cities and sensations mix in his perception, losing shapes of reality, and gaining contours of a dream. Already mentioned, the tonal approach to the picture is typical for Stančić, also noticeable here is his playful approach with surfaces building unclear spatial relations. The specific figure of a little man, similar to the one in his famous painting "Franck", from 1968 (located in the Zagreb National Museum of Modern Art), but also in a series of his other paintings featuring this unusual small boy is a reminiscence of a childlike view of reality. Stančić's melancholic atmosphere is here as well, which rather addresses to the undefined feeling, than human reason, which should decipher the depicted elements and their meanings. FG

Dimensions

width 81 cm, height 65 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed at the top right, in grey, "M Stančić"

Research information

The work is reproduced in the monograph "Miljenko Stančić", Igor Zidić, Publishing Institute of Matica hrvatska, Zagreb, 1979., p. 98., cat. no. 96., under the title "Peroni".

Dating

1966.

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