Nije nam poznat slikar koji je prvi umjetnički relevantno naslikao motiv željeznice i tako otvorio novu ikonografsku stranicu u povijesti umjetnosti, koja će biti značajna u šifriranju novog duha vremena i postati metaforom za najdublja humanistička pitanja koja čovjek industrijske civilizacije postavlja samome sebi. Postoji u Nacionalnoj galeriji u Londonu Turnerova slika Kiša, para i brzina - željeznica »Great Western« (1844). Kroz beskrajni, tipično tumerovski pejzaž prolazi vlak sav utonuo u obojenu paru, nekonzistentan, vizionaran kao i mnogo poznatiji Tumerovi jedrenjaci, što poput orahove ljuske lelujaju u maglenoj beskonačnosti neba i oceana. Ovaj veliki engleski romantičar volio je željeznicu - za razliku od mnogih njegovih suvremenika kao što su Wordsworth, Ruskin, Dickens, Delacroix koji su u njoj vidjeli anonimnog i smrtonosnog Moloha industrijske revolucije. Poslije smrti Turnerove ova je slika interpretirana kao osuda zastrašujuće mehaničke ružnoće koja je preplavila prirodu. To je i trenutak prve međunarodne izložbe industrijskih proizvoda u Londonu (1851), rađanje ideologije o mehanizaciji suvremenog svijeta i početak strastvenih rasprava o neizbježnom sukobu između umjetnosti i industrije, umjetnosti i tehnike.

Modernizam teme kakav je, bez sumnje, Turner postigao u spomenutoj slici privukao je Moneta za njegova prvog boravka u Londonu, i u tim okolnostima treba tražiti klicu nastanka serije platna koje je ovaj impresionista slikao na stanici Saint-Lazare između 1876. i 1878. Kao ni Turner, ni Monet slikarski ne meditira o biti nove ere mašinizma u koju je čovjek povijesno zakoračio. Lokomotive su tek crna, neodređena čudovišta obavijena oblacima dima koji se u sivim ili plavičastim spiralama uzdižu podno visokih vitraža kolodvorskih lukobrana ili slobodno put neba. Ti oblaci dima, a ne lokomotiva, glavna su tema slike - njihovo prelijevanje u duginim bojama, vrtoglava senzacija što je pobuđuju, iluminiscencija što izbija iz njihova komešanja.

Tema vlaka privući će osobito talijanskog futuristu Gina Severinija. U slici Vlak crvenog križa (1914) iz Guggenheim muzeja u New Yorku juri željeznička kompozicija kroz kubistički pejzaž. Iz lokomotive kuljaju pravilni baloni dima. Sama kompozicija slike nije osobito dinamička, ali ikonsko značenje željeznice cilja nesumnjivo na ono što je futuristima bilo najvažnije - brzina. Metafizičar Giorgio de Chirico koristi, međutim, simbolizam vlaka da naznači turobni sentiment rastanka. Poput uske trake vremena prolazi vlak na slikama nastalim između 1912. i 1914. godine, svagda s one strane zida pustih trgova pojačavajući tako ukletu atmosferu bezvremenosti, nepokretnosti, tajanstva postojanja.

Još se u dva kruga zamršenog labirinta moderne umjetnosti izrazitije javlja tema vlaka - među slikarima Nove stvarnosti ili Nove objektivnosti i među američkim preci-zionistima ili kuborealistima. I doista, što bi drugo bile panoramske vizure nove čovjekove stvarnosti ako ne metalni svijet industrijskog masinizma? Ali ove slikare taj novi svijet više fascinira nego - kao futuriste - ideološki mobilizira. Nisu poneseni duhom stroja, »mašinskom estetikom«, poput Legera. Pripadnici Nove stvarnosti bili su opsjednuti željezničkim mostovima. Do magičnosti, do nadrealnosti. Precizionist Charles Sheeler slika »kubističku« mehaniku pogonskih kotača lokomotive u krupnom planu. Istu optiku primijenio je i Marijan Detoni u grafičkoj mapi Tračnice (1941).

Izvucimo neke pouke. Za Turnera je željeznica koncentrat energije što poput oštrog sječiva prolazi kroz njedra prirode, pribrojivši svoju snagu snagama uzvišenih i zastrašujućih kozmičkih sila, toliko dragih romantičarima. Za Moneta je lokomotiva čudesni agregat spektakularnih i spektralnih svjetlosnih i kolorističkih senzacija i impresija kakve su tražili impresionisti. Za Severinija je vlak metafora brzine i sprovodnik orgijastičkog futurističkog uključivanja u totalnu akciju. Za Sheelera je kubistički sklop poluga pogonskih kotača lokomotive zadivljujući simbol industrijskog svijeta u punom zamahu i sjajan motiv u rječniku estetike precizionizma. U svakom od navedenih primjera lokomotiva nije tek ono što optički jest; ona je transformirana do granica umjetnikova stila, ona izražava u širokim smisaonim obrisima poetiku i ideologiju kolektivnog smjera, pokreta ili pravca kojemu je slikar pripadao.

Slikarstvo Nenada Opačića zaodjenuto je i nošeno svijetom »kiborga«, parnih lokomotiva i arsenalom njenih »anatomskih« dijelova. Do te mjere da su postali primarnom i gotovo isključivom temom u posljednjih desetak godina njegova rada. Postoji autobiografsko-psihološki sloj: djetinjstvo je proveo uz željeznicu, uz ložionice i lokomotive, »te metalne mješine, crne kolose pune straha«. Postoji slikarski milje: Majstorska radionica K. Hegedušića i jedna upravo uspostavljena tradicija od strane generacije slikara koji završavaju postdiplomski studij na toj otvorenoj školi - linija figuracije s ekspresionističkim zamahom novoosvojenog samopokazivanja unutarnjeg svijeta subjekta ili vanjskog svijeta objekta, onako kako se to nadasve manifestiralo u slikarstvima Nives Kavurić-Kurtović, Ismara Mujezinovića, Ive Friščića, Zlatka Kauzlarića-Atača. Nakon Novih tendencija i nasuprot njima, njihovoj scijentistički obojenoj ideologiji izgradnje novog vizualnog poretka svijeta, spomenuti krug mladih teži žestokom individualnom sudaru sa svijetom života, psihičkim i socijalnim tenzijama koje su osjećali sagledavajući njihove proturječnosti. U atmosferi tih umjetničkih previranja Opačić nedvojbeno osnažuje i ubrzava svoje slikarsko sazrijevanje. Ali mogli bismo govoriti i o sukladnosti tih težnji s vlastitim intencijama i impulsima. Naime, u tom času on raspolaže znatnim zalihama čistog ekspresionizma koje je stekao u doba svoje neobične prethistorije slikarskog »vunderkinda«.

Sklon od početka slikanju sadržaja nošenih snažnim emocionalnim uzbuđenjima, tipičnim ekspresionističkim tenzijama forme i boje, Opačić u vrijeme svoga postdiplomskog studija (1972-1975) prenosi to iskustvo - da tako kažemo - sa individualnih ljudskih sudbina na univerzalno čovjekovo raspoloženje.

On traži likovni idiom, slikarski adekvat kojima bi izrazio samu strukturu čovjekova bivstvovanja, udes njegova vremenovanja. Čovjekov je svijet udešen strojno. To znači da je u međuvremenu tehnika postala bitno strojna, a prirodne sile, pred kojima su strasno drhtali romantičari, Turner, javljaju se u čovjekovu vidokrugu, sklopljene u stroj, još samo kao pogon, neprestano kretanje - mogli bismo kazati - dolaženje i odlaženje, poput željeznice.

Opačićev idiom, još tamo 1973. godine, postao je parni stroj. U posve apstraktnom prostoru izdržava mašina svoj lik; svoju snagu, svoju masivnost, fantastiku svojih antro-pomorfnih preobrazbi. Ne ispušta balone dima, ne kupa se u oblacima pare; iskazuje tek svoju zamršenu i nabreklu muskulaturu, crnu, sivu, sumornu. Dramatičnu. I tu se začinje priča. Priča o pregaženom, priča o kiborgu, prizori razornih čeličnih i koštanih udesa. Slikar se samo naoko služi tehnikom i optikom hiperrealizma. Nije napustio imaginaciju, zadržao je ekspresionistički nerv. Štoviše, koristi se fantastikom sraza nespojivog. Brutalizmom scenarija i aktualnošću poruke izborio je Opačić status angažiranog i pobunjenog, lako samo prolazno, ipak se u jednom trenutku našao zajedno sa grupom Biafra.

Ali vrijeme njegova slikarskog napredovanja kretat će se u drugom pravcu. Njegova ikonografija raspada se na sastavne dijelove. Nagomilane sinje i osovine, pokretni i nepokretni zglobovi i sastavci parostroja, demontirani, odbačeni i zaboravljeni fascinantna su mrtva priroda moderne tehnike na njenom putu beskrajnog napredovanja.

Riječ je, bez sumnje, o novoj fazi u Opačićevu slikarstvu. Sugestiju slijepog brutalizma zamijenila je sada gluha melankolija, čak stanoviti intimizam što utopljuje hladnu masivnost nepokretnih i rasklopljenih elemenata mrtvoga stroja. Tajna je odbačenih stvari da stiču fluid poetičnosti - iskustvo dobro poznato u avangardnoj umjetnosti 20. stoljeća. Umjesto fotografskog islikavanja i iscrtavanje detalja, slikar se sve više služi tehnikom fotokolaža. Slikanje preuzima funkciju povezivanja rasutih ikoničkih podataka, stvaranja stanovite jedinstvene atmosfere, status vehementnosti unikatne artističke intervencije. Karakteristično je da se u novoj situaciji dekomponirane kaotične metalne imažinerije javlja sve vidljivije i otvorenije program pažljivog komponiranje slike. Opačić se u tu svrhu služi geometrijom čistih ploha, traka i pojaseva neutralne, zatvorene i srogo reducirane game boje. Najposlije, u novijim i najnovijim radovima autor osim formalnog proširuje i tematski krug. Neočekivano djeluju konjske glave (više lubanje nego glave) u scenariju »mrtvih priroda«. Mogli bismo govoriti o blagom nadrealističkom šoku koji one izazivaju, nadnešene nad metalne stogove bezimenih mehaničkih oblika. U tom se slučaju radi o tvrdom ili budnom nadrealizmu iskovanom na pojačanom realizmu nove civilizacijske slike stvarnosti. U varijacijama signala i signalizacije već iskazana strast za komponiranjem i slikarskim konstruiranjem stopila se sa »konstruktivnošću« motiva, narastajući - nakon svega - do granica opsesije.

Zdenko Rus

We do not know which painter was the first to give artistic relevance to the motif of the railway, thus turning a new iconographic page in art history, setting up a new code for the spirit of the times, creating a metaphor for the deepest humanistic self-questionings of industrial man. There is a painting by Turner in The National Gallery in London entitled Rain, Steam and Speed - fhe Great Western Railway (1844). A train is passing through Turner's characteristic boundless landscape, enveloped in coloured steam, immaterial, visionary, just like his much more famous sailing ships hovering like nutshells in the misty infinity of sky and ocean. This great English roman-tic loved trains and differed in this from contemporaries such as Wordsworth, Ruskin, Dickens, Delacroix who saw them as the anonymous and deadly Molochs of the industrial revolution. After Turner's death this painting was interpreted as condemnation of the frightening mec-hanical ugliness which' in overpowering nature. That was the time of the first exhibition of industrial products in London 1851, the birth of the ideology of mechanization of the modern world, the beginning of passionate disputes about the inevitable conflict between art and industry, art and technology.

The modernity of Turner's theme attracted Monet during his first stay in London and was the initial inspiration for the series of paintings executed by this impressionist at the Gare St Lazare between 1876 and 1878, Dust like Turner, Monet does not meditate about the historical implications of the Machiene Era. His locomotives are un-defined black monsters surrounded by clouds of smoke rising in grey or bluish spirals towards the high glass arches of the station or into the open skies. It is these smoke clouds rather then the locomotives which consti-tute the main theme of the painting - shimmering in ali the colours of the spectrum, inducing a sense of dizzi-ness, dazzling us with their luminous tumult.

The train theme was especially dear to the Italian futurist Gino Severini. In his Red Cross Train (1914), from the Guggenhein Museum in New York, a train is speeding through a cubist landscape. Symmetrical balloons of smoke are rising from the locomotive. The composition of the painting is not too dynamic, but the iconic meaning of the train theme certainly points at what was upper-most in the futurist idea - speed. The metaphysical inspiration of Giorgio de Chirico, however, uses the train symbol to suggest the sadness of parting. In paintings executed between 1912 and 1914 his trains seem to travel the narrow road of time, beyond deserted squares, creating an atmosphere of timelessness, inertia, mystery.

Two groups have added aspects of this theme to the complex maze of modem art: some painters of New Reality or New Objectivity and some of the American Precisionists or Cubo-Realists. Indeed, what better vehi-cle for a panoramic vision of man's new reality than the metallic world of industrial machinism? For these painters, however, this new world is a matter of fascination rather than ideology, and this sets them apart from the Futurists. They are not inspired by the špirit of the mac-hine, and its aesthetic, like Leger. The followers of New Reality were obsessed by railway bridges, placing them in an aura of magic, of the surreal. The precisionist Charles Sheeler painter the »cubist« mechanics of locomotive wheels in close detail. The same close-up technique was used by Marijan Detoni in his portfolio entitled Rails (1941).

Let us dravn some conclusions. For Turner the railway was a concentration of energy which enters knife-like into the bosom of nature, adding its might to that of the frightening and transcendent cosmic powers so dear to the romantics. For Monet the locomotive is a magic ag-gregate of spectacular and spectral sensations and im-pressions of light and colour sought by the impressionists. For Severini the train is a metaphor of speed, the engineer of orgiastic futuristic participation in total action. For Sheeler the cubist arrangemdnt of locomotive wheels and levers was a fascinating symbol of the industrial world in full swing, a brilliant motif in the dictionary of precisionist aesthetics. In each of these examples the locomotive in not limited to its factual optical existence; it is transformed within the limits of the artist's style, it expresses in broad ideational strokes the poetics and ideology of that collective tendency or movement to which the painter belonged.

The painting of Nenad Opačić is inspired by the world of the »cyborg«, the steam locomotive and the arsenal of its »anatomical« parts to such a degree that they have become the primary and nearly exclusive theme of his painting in this decade. There is a psychological autobio-graphical point to make: his childhood is connected to the railway, the proximity of firerooms and locomotives, »those metal monsters, black colossi inspiring fear«. There is a professional background: Krsto Hegedušić's work-shop and the newly shaped tradition of a generation of painters completing their master course in that liberal school - the line of new figuration coloured by expres-sionism, revealing the inner world of the subject or the outside world of the object, primarily as manifested in the painting of Nives Kavurić-Kurtović, Ismar Mujezinović, Ivo Friščić, Zlatko Kauzlarić-Atač. Corning after the New Tendencies and in opposition to them and their scienti-stic ideology which aimed at a new visual world order, these young painters sought a violent individual clash with life and the psychic and social tensions they felt, aware of their contradictions. Opačić's development and maturing as a painter was undoubtedly prompted by such a turbulent artistic atmosphere. We could also sug-gest that the tendencies we have just described were complementary with his own impulses and intentions. At that point Opačić was swayed by a rich store of pure expressionism accumulated during his exceptional prehi-story as a »child prodigy«.

Drawn from the very first towards subjects fired by great emotional excitement and typically expresssionist tensions of shapes and colours, Opačić used his years at the Workshop (1972-1975) trying to transpose this experience - as it were - from individual cases into universal human situations. He searched for a visual idiom, a painter's correlative to express the very structure of man's being, the patterns of his existence in time. Man's world is patterned by machines. Technology has been mechanized in its essence, the natural forces which fired the passion of romantics such as Turner now appear on man's horizon incorporated into machines, propelling permanent motion, comings and goings, like trains.

For the past ten years the steam engine has been Opačić's idiom. Surrounded by abstract space, the machine exists in its force, its massive bulk, its fantastic antropomorphic metamorphoses. It does not create balloons of smoke, it is not enveloped in clouds of steam; it exists in the complex and bulging pattern of its muscles, black, grey, mournful. A dramatic pattern. And it is here that the story begins - the story of the victim run over by a train, the story. of the cyborg the scenes of broken metal and broken bones. The painter only seems to be using the technique and optics of hy-perrealism. He has not deserted the imagination, he has retained the expressionist špirit. He even achieves fantastic effects by juxtaposing incompatibles. The brutalism of his scenario and the topicality of his message have marked Opačić as a committed and rebellious artist. For a moment, he was in unison with the Biafra Group.

However, Opačić's painting developed in another direction. His iconography disintegrated into its constituent parts. Heaps of rails and axles, various parts of the steam engine, often dismantled, discarded and forgotten, constitute a fascinating still life - modem technology in its unrelenting progress.

This represents undoubtedly a new phase in Opačić's painting. The suggestion of blind bru-talism has been replaced by dull melancholy, a certain intimism has begun to lend some warmth to the massive coldness of the immobile, disassembled elements of a dead machine. The secret of discarded things lies in the poetic aura that they acquire - a well-known finding of avant-garde twentieth century art Instead of photographic attention to detail, painters made increasing use of photo-collage. Painting assumed the function of connec-ting disjointed iconic data, creating a unified atmosphere, making a unique work object of art through vehement artistic intervention. Characteristically, in this new situation created by deconstructed and chaotic metal imagery Opačić began to reaffirm more and more openly and boldly a programme of careful composition. For this pur-pose he resorted to the geometry of pure surfaces, strips and belts of neutral, closed and carefully reduced colour. Along with his formal scope, in his recent works the painter has also broadened his thematic range. Unex-pected is the effect of horses heads (more skulls than heads) in his »still life« scenarios. We could even speak of a mild surrealistic shock produced by these heads hovering over heaps of nameless mechanical metal sha-pes. These compositions seem to belong to some kind of hard, watchful surrealism, built on the vision of modern civilization offered by the New Realists. Through ali the variations of his signs and symbols, Opačić's passion for composition and artistic structuring has been fused with the »construction« quality of his motifs, reaching - in the end - the limits of obsession.

Zdenko Rus