OTHERS ABOUT HIM Critics

Emilija Kovač, prof.

The creative world of Franjo Mustač is a world of landscape.

Entering this world, we do not travel far: it is somewhere here, close, recognizable ... But never fully recognized. The author maintains a creative distance from the facts. Space of freedom, individuality, superior to the facts. He does not repeat by his work, but he produces, capable of all the responsibility implied by the creative act.

The painting is not a portrait of the world, but a portrait of the author. Metaphorical, of course, because the motif is like the word: it is the form leading to the meaning; the motif is, like the word – the metaphor: seeking to cross; wanting to be a bridge between the external, material and the internal. To present one by presenting what one presents.

Rudolf Wesner, prof.

Franjo Mustač primarily uses pastel colours for his works.

These colours look velvety and warm. The painter has perfected his technique so that his colours are melting formally, crossing into one another and giving much ease and transparency to the paints. This results in both shape and structure. The surfaces look like they are driven by a light breeze. The experience of watching, as a last reminder to the observer of his work, is full of poetry.

Marijan Lazar, prof.

His colours, as well as his art, vividly speak about warmth and stillness that shape the fundamental way of recognisability.

Mustač sentimentally portrays the transience of time at the level of the structural layers’ game, which is made with the brush, developing artistic suggestiveness and, at the same time, a sense of belonging to the rural landscape of his birthplace. It is not questionable whether a man, nature, village, or an exceptional vertical of spirituality – the church – represents his fundamental motif because all of these represent fullness of a life that manifests in the visual arts.

Zlatko Baranašić

Franjo Mustač appears in our artistic reality as a special personality.

If he starts from the seen, he rewards his motif with spiritual content, which enriches the motif, and thus gives the impression that initiates a thought as a powerful component for the experience of paintings. Expression, a lyrical atmosphere with the presence of sentimental and passionate yet emotional affection, are woven into the paintings forming their mark. His motifs have brought us back to the past times, evoking memories of youth and the sadness of lost time. Ekspresija, lirski ugođaj s prisustvom nostalgičnog i strasnog, ali emocionalne žestine, utkane su u  slike i njihovo su obilježje. Njegovi motivi su nas vratili u prošla vremena koja u nama pobuđuju sjećanja na mladost i tugu za izgubljenim vremenom

Martin Lukavečki

Painting in all techniques, but mostly in oil pastel because it is the best for the landscape.

His pictures are recognizable: warm winters, calm plains of Međimurje. Memories of a past life. Images from a playful childhood are vividly engraved in the memory. He does not care about modern times on the fields, with tractors and harvesters. There is no poetry; he says, “It is an idyllic picture from those times. One, who rode on a carriage with his grandparents, certainly would not forget that. I still hear wheels on macadam roads. Times were tough, but everything was meaningful. People knew when to work and when to rest. They worked as much as they needed.”

Corn stalks, willows, a church in the distance – recognizable motifs of the villages of Međimurje in his works. He is using a little of green and blue colours. In sacred themes, he avoids copying what he already has seen. Franjo Mustač-Medarov is a poet of the Međimurje’s plains. He narrates the time that is lost forever by using gentle colours.