Nikifor: The Rusyns’ Outsider

Epifaniusz Drowniak (1895-1968), also known as Nikifor, is an internationally famous naïve painter whose work has pulled Rusyn culture into one of the more unique currents in the contemporary art world in a major way. Because naïve art (a form of self-taught art whose central figure is Grandma Moses) has become associated with Outsider Art, Nikifor has been adopted into the Outsider cannon as well.

Outsider art has been around as a field of study since the 1940s but only in the 1990s did it begin to widely attract the attention of scholars and collectors. Naïve art has been associated with Outsider art since the beginning. In New York, Outsider art takes center stage every year in January, when the Puck Building in SoHo hosts the Outsider Art Fair, the American Folk Art Museum and galleries which deal in Outsider art stage exhibits and lectures and other companion events are organized. The significance of the form was demonstrated earlier this year, when Christies staged the first auction of Outsider art ever held by a major auction house. On offer were selections from Robert M. Greenberg's collection. The collec-tion was expected to pull in between $1.5 and 2.2 million dollars for 121 lots.

Even though, or rather because, Nikifor’s work is purely naïve, self-taught, it has been absorbed into this very postmodern phenomenon. Riding the Outsider art wave, Nikifor’s work has been shown in galleries and museums in New York, Lausanne, and elsewhere around the world. His works are a fixture at the Outsider Art Fair and are sold by a number of galleries.

Nikifor was a Lemko, born near Krynica in Poland; he never knew his father, and various accounts say that his mother was a washerwoman, a domestic, a beggar or a prostitute. Nikifor could not remember when his mother died, and eventually even forgot her name. Orphaned, he was forced to live on the street at an early age. Legend says that Nikifor was a deaf mute, but most now believe that he had a speech defect which restricted his speaking. Rumor has it that his mother was stricken with the same affliction.

One of the most interesting features of his works is his use of the written word, in various ways and for various effects. Compensation for his speech defect could help to explain why Nikifor tried to use written language, even though he was illiterate to his death; others believe he used words in his paintings to deal with shame of his illiteracy. One way Nikifor used language was by stamping a seal with the words “Nikifor – Matejko” on the back of his paintings (Matejko is the name of a famous Polish painter). He also used stamps which read “Painted by: Nikifor,” “Artist: Nikifor,” and “Souvenir from Krynica.” One source says that Nikifor did this to mark himself as a painter. Another way Nikifor used the written word was to write captions for his paintings directly onto the works themselves. Thanks to his illiteracy, these captions are misspelled and have nothing to do with the subject of the work more often than not.

Nikifor started painting when he was very young; his earliest works still in existence date from when he was just thirteen. Several thousand watercolors remain as his legacy. Since proper materials were unavailable to him, he used whatever paper he could find, even scraps glued together. For this reason, many of his works are irregularly shaped.

Nikifor’s favorite subjects were buildings, most frequently those of Krynica. In addition to church buildings, sacred religious themes frequently appear. Nikifor also spent much time observing and documenting the daily lives of the inhabitants of and visitors to Krynica. He also produced works in which he portrayed himself as a bishop, a judge, or as a saint.

Although he was able to sell his paintings throughout his life, he often had to resort to begging. Regardless of his financial position, Nikifor was almost never seen without his hat and tie. In the 1930s, prominent Polish artists took notice of Nikifor and introduced other parts of Europe to his work. His works were exhibited in Paris, for example, in 1932. However, his work was forgotten in the unrest of the Second World War.

The war affected much more than just Nikifor’s artistic reputation. As part of Akcija Wisla, he was among those Lemkos expelled from the traditional Lemko region and resettled in other parts of Poland. Shortly after the war, Nikifor returned to Krynica from Pomerania, having made the trip on foot. Later, his works once again began to be shown throughout Europe, and even America. In this way, he did manage to achieve a degree of financial security thanks to his painting towards the end of his life. Unfortunately, with success came a loss of artistic vision. One account from the catalogue of the Petullo collec-tion, which feat-ures several of Nikifor’s works, says that in the end, “drawing became a burden-some activity.”

Nikifor died in 1968 in Krynica.

Though he is not widely known abroad, Nikifor remains an important artist in Poland. This has led to a crisis of identity, since the Polish establishment has striven to eliminate Nikifor’s Lemko roots and to turn him into a Pole. For example, legal action was recently required when a museum refused to call Nikifor by his legal name, preferring the more Polish-sounding Nikifor Krynicki. The judge ruled that the museum must use his legal (Lemko) name, Epifaniusz Drowniak.

A testament to his popularity and significance, the Polish postal service released four stamps commemorating Nikifor’s work as part of a series of stamps dedicated to “the artistic output of eminent painters” in 1998. The stamps use four paintings from the Regional Museum of Nowy Sącz and the Nikifor Museum in Krynica: ”Triple Self-Portrait", "Hobby Horse", "Eastern Rite Church" and "Ugrybów Station". On the first day of sale, the postal service issued special first-day circulation envelopes which featured a seal modeled after those Nikifor stamped on the reverse of his paintings.

A major catalogue of the holdings of the Regional Museum in Nowy Sacz, the parent museum to the Nikifor Museum in Kryinca, was published in Poland by Bosz Publishers in 2000 (see last issue for a review).

Already recog-nized for his contri-butions to Polish culture, and even to an extent Rusyn culture, Nikifor remains an undiscov-ered pop icon for the Rusyns. Outsider art is growing in popu-larity in Europe; among the highlights of European interest is the Slovak National Gallery’s triennial Insita exhibition, which will be staged for the seventh time this summer in Bratislava. More attention should cer-tainly be placed on the role of Outsider art in Rusyn culture, just as other Eastern and Central European nations are now reevaluating its role in their cultures. Outsider art has become very chic in Russia in the past several years; its tradition in the former Yugoslavia dates back at least to the 1940s. A Rusyn consideration of Outsider art, however, must steer clear of the folksy aspects, which will only serve to bind Nikifor and other, as yet undiscovered, Rusyn Outsider artists to the 19^th century culture. The cosmopolitan, postmodern, hip aspects of Outsider art are what must be highlighted in order for Nikifor and others to contribute to the creation of a Rusyn pop culture.