oil on hardboard, 49 x 72 cm, signed bottom left, in white, "Ivančić Lj."

Rain, atmospheric conditions during its occurrence, or just before or after it, as well as the relationships it brings in the observed world (or landscape, as its pictorial articulation) are a common motif in the paintings of Ljubo Ivančić (1925 - 2003), a painter whose work is often associated with the philosophy of existentialism, that is, with a strong sense of human presence in a world that in itself makes no sense. Ivančić's landscapes, nudes and still lifes, which can be classified within such a tragic, but also humanistic worldview, are not unusual because on them the artist tried to give the very essence of the object or phenomena (rain, in the case of this painting) expressed by painting methods. Therefore, without an emphasized imitation of reality, or atmosphere, but trying to produce a unique, human (and even individual) experience of the object, phenomenon, feeling through painting methods. The composition of this painting is not rare in Ljubo Ivančić's oeuvre. It consists of a horizon line, above which rises a gray-white mass, edged with a golden yellow line. All these are associations of something that can be visually experienced (rain clouds above the horizon). Even the fall of rain is indicated by a series of cuts in color. However, what sets Ivančić's rains apart from those we experience in reality is the emphasized play with elements of painting - matter, or the composition of masses. The form, or the play with it, carries the suggestion of a certain landscape, but also emotional reactions to it. In establishing the relationship, in the thoughtful balancing of gray and dark fields, the justification of this unique (and uniquely experienced) vision of a very ordinary natural phenomenon is found. FG

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