Miljenko Stančić Collection

The Miljenko Stančić collection consists of 19 oils on canvas and 8 graphics, created in the period from 1952 to 1977.

Painter and graphic artist Miljenko Stančić graduated in painting in 1949 and attended a special course in graphic art with Tomislav Krizman (1949–1951) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he also taught (1961–1977). He is the founder of the poetic-surrealist movement in Croatian painting. From the very beginning, his painting developed as a distinctive and independent painterly vision. Using the techniques of the old masters, he painted with astonishing perfection and refined tonal nuances. Following the experiences of Josip Račić, he created a unique poetic synthesis of the old and the new, the nostalgic and the contemporary. A significant part of his oeuvre consists of vedute of his hometown Varaždin, mostly deserted streets and squares, the outlines of Baroque churches and roofs in the subdued twilight light.

From 1954 onwards, he painted phantasmagorical metamorphoses of human figures and compositions with metaphysically calm figures in wonderfully lit poetic interiors, in which from around 1958 onwards, a tendency towards a flat and decorative understanding of the surface prevailed. In the latter period, he created works in which he sought to achieve new chromatic values by decomposing the painted surface. The changes he gradually introduced into painting after 1970 primarily marked the enrichment of motifs with erotic content, harmonious organic forms from which the fullness of vital energy emanated. He drew illustrations for newspapers and magazines, produced wall paintings, graphics and scenography.