The artist was born on May 21 in Krynica village, then a part of Austria-Hungary, now the town of Krynica-Zdroj of the Małopolska Region, Poland. His mother, Evdokia Drovniak, Lemko (an ethnic group of Ukrainians), was deaf and dumb; his father is unknown. The name Epiphanius was written during baptism according to the calendar, because unfathered ones could not get a second name. The boy did not hear well, could not learn to speak clearly because of heredity (defect of the speech apparatus) and because there was no one to teach him.
1895 - 1968
Nikifor Krynicki
description
A Polish and Ukrainian (Lemkiv) self-taught artist. Recognized in the world of fine art as one of the largest naive artists.
It is surprising that Nikifor, an unfathered and absolutely lonely, almost deaf and tongue-tied, almost illiterate beggar, showed tremendous perseverance in achieving the goal he set for himself. He wanted to become “Mateiko from Krynica”, not knowing yet that this ironic nickname was the name of a famous artist. He became Nikifor, whom even the entire artistic world knows without a surname. The colossal ability to work and the desire to draw made it possible for the number of works created by him to appear in the history of fine art. That is not including those which were destroyed because they were used as a kindling, offered as payment for a piece of bread, those that disappeared from the chest when Nikifor was arrested on suspicion of espionage, those partially unaccounted and undried, which were bought by fans, who came to Krynica to the famous old incurably sick primitivist.
The legacy that he left is colossal – there are up to 40 thousand preserved works. Currently, his works are in various art collections of galleries and museums, as well as significant private collections. Most of the paintings are exhibited at the regional museum of Nova Sacz and at the Nikifor Museum in Krynica (opened in 1995). The original artist became the hero of the film “My Nikifor” (K. Krause, 2004). The monuments of Lemko Nikifor (Epiphanius) Drovniak, who was given documents with the name Nikifor Krynitsky in his Polish motherland, were installed in Krynica and in Lviv.
Key ideas:
– Judging by the earliest preserved works from the 1920s, one can see how many efforts Nikifor-Epiphanius put to improve his skills endlessly correcting wrong lines.
– He enthusiastically depicted the world, arbitrarily (not mindlessly, but according to the idea) complementing the images of nature, architectural and interior realities with non-existent details, often fantastic. He painted churches outside and inside with great love, the saints and himself near them or instead of them. And this was not a blasphemy, but his worldview.
– Paintings by Nikifor are distinguished by the decorative expressiveness of a clear pattern and a subtle sense of color. He preferred the contrast of colors and harmonious rhythm. Unusual fantasy allowed him to draw what he had never seen – majestic skyscrapers and entire cities from a bird’s eye view, airplanes and elegant women, whose proximity he never knew.
– Nikifor sought – and succeeded in this – to turn gray gloomy buildings into luxurious bouquets and “build” blooming city blocks of them.
– Being a social outcast, a homeless wanderer, he not only did not become embittered, but also preached harmony and love with his “pictures” (as he called his works). However, he acutely felt lonely and named one of his works as “No one is near Nikifor”.
1895
1900 - 1910
1930
1938 - 1940
1947
1949
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1962
1964 - 1968
1968
The artist was born
The first fee
At a church school, he learned to read and write in printed letters, drew on the blackboard with a stylus, later with a pencil on any pieces of paper found (wrappers, cigarette packs, boxes). His mother died early; the orphan began to wander and draw churches and iconostases, faces of saints and portraits of passers-by, landscapes and everything he saw around, offering his “pictures” for a very low price or exchanging them for food. The young man received his first fee of 5 guilders from an Austrian officer for a painted portrait. After that, local people started respecting him more.
The talent of the self-taught man was discovered by Ukrainian artist R. Turin
The talent of the self-taught man was discovered by Ukrainian artist R. Turin, who bought about 200 of his drawings, a few of which were included in the collective exhibition in Paris (1932). In addition, Turin told the Polish art community, in particular, Academy Professor Yuzef Pankevich, a Polish artist and fine critic E. Wolf, about Nikifor.
105 works by Nikifor were shown at the exhibition “The Art of self-taught” in Lviv
105 works by Nikifor from the collection of R. Turin and L. Fedorovich-Malitskaya were shown at the exhibition “The Art of self-taught” in Lviv. In the “Ukrainian Youth” (the monthly magazine of the Catholic group “Eagles”), there was a response to the personal exposition at the House of Architects (“The exhibition of self-taught artist Nikifor”). An unusually informative essay by E. Wolf, “The Artist of Naive Realism in Poland. Nikifor”, was published in the magazine “Arcade” (Krakow). The artist met Polish poet K. Galchinsky, who provided him a shelter during the war and took care of the publication of articles about the master in the press.
Operation "Vistula"ция «Висла»
Together with other Lemkos, he was deported to the north of Poland (operation “Vistula” – forced resettlement of Ukrainians). However, overcoming 700 km on foot from Szczecin, Nikifor returned to Krynica four times. It was decided, despite the severity of the deportation order, to change his nationality; that was how Epifan Dvornyak became a Polish man named Jan Nikifor; he signed many of his works with this name.
The Exhibitions
Several dozen works from the A. Banach collection were exhibited in Warsaw – “The Exhibition of Works of Art of Jan Nikifor”, hall of the Society of Architects; 7 works were presented at the National Museum; 20 – in Krakow at an exhibition organized by labor union; in Poznan, works from the E. Wolf collection were exhibited; 100 his paintings were shown by A. Banach at the personal exhibition at the Festival of Arts.
57 works by Nikifor were selected for the London exhibition
In the hall of the Society of Architects, 153 works by Nikifor were exhibited; 57 works by Nikifor were selected for the London exhibition of Polish folk art; 24 drawings were exhibited in Lublin.
He received a silver medal
A number of exhibitions were held in Warsaw (collective in the Historical Museum, 13 works by Nikifor) and in Novaja Huta (a personal exhibition, 150 watercolors and drawings); in Krakow, the Society of Fine Arts Lovers included 64 works in the exposition, where T. Ocepok, G. Rek, G. Yastřesky were represented; at the International Exhibition of Art of the Deaf and Dumb in Rome, 5 of his works were presented; he received a silver medal for them.
“Nikifor, master from Krynitsa”
2 paintings participated in EXPO-58 at the Belgian Knock-le-Zoute (naive masters). A collective exhibition in Warsaw included 163 works by Nikifor; it was held in Szczecin and Bogdashe. The book by A. Banach “Nikifor, master from Krynitsa” was published.
100 works in the Diny Vierny Gallery won the hearts of the experienced audience
One event in Paris had the biggest resonance: 100 works in the Diny Vierny Gallery won the hearts of the experienced audience, as well as the viewer in Amsterdam, Brussels and Liege in the same year. The name of Nikifor was listed in posters of Krakow (“Icons. Nikifor and Novoselsky”, 51 works of Drovnyak); Belgrade and Zagreb (“Polish primitive craftsmen”, 117 works). The second book of A. Banach about the artist was published.
The retrospective large exhibition
A retrospective large exhibition of Nikifor was shown in Warsaw (State Museum of Fine Arts), another one – in Haifa, then in Lublin and at several galleries in Paris. At one of them, “Lambart”, it was repeated several times. In Vienna, the exposition was organized by the Society of Austro-Polish Friendship, showing 65 works from the Tsekhomsky collection. The “Naive image of the world” with 16 works by Nikifor was exhibited in Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main and Hannover. Also, some works were exhibited in Chicago and Brazil.
"Beggar"
The artist once again received new documents and became Nikifor Krynitsky. But in the column “origin”, there still was the word “beggar”.
The exhibition took place in Lviv and Kiev
In the last five years of the life of the artist, who already had his car and saved money to buy a house (he did not have time to buy it), his works appeared in the collections of dozens of naive connoisseurs. In addition to the countries and cities already mentioned, where the exhibitions were repeated almost annually, Nikifor’s works participated in personal and collective compilations in New York and Cologne, Rotterdam and Bratislava, Stockholm and Sao Paulo, Nantes and Salzburg, Philadelphia and ten cities in Poland. In 1968, the exhibition took place in Lviv and Kiev.
His heart stopped beating
On October 10, in the sanatorium Folusz, where Nikifor treated tuberculosis, his heart stopped beating. He was buried in the Krynytska cemetery. The money he collected for a house and all his property was transferred to the government. Later his works became the property of the artist’s museum built in Nowy Sacz in 1995.
In 2003, the Polish Mushinsky Court claimed that Nikifor Krynitsky was Epiphanius Drovniak, as stated in the metric written by Fr. Nicholas, a minister of the Greek Catholic Church in Krynica. In 2005, the Lemkos community took the initiative to build a monument to the artist; its author became Cheslav Dzvigaj. The monument to Nikifor was installed in 2006 in Lviv.