Influence of Lemko Orthodox churches on creation of >Modlitewnik< by Nikifor
Inspiracja
Nikifor, or rather Epifaniusz Drowniak (1895-1968), went down in history as an extraordinarily colourful and unusual character. He was a self-taught artist, gifted with exceptional painterly intuition and the ability to uniquely juxtapose colours. For a very long time he lived in extreme poverty, without a permanent address. From his mother, Nikifor inherited an advanced speech defect, which limited his contacts with the world and intensified his social rejection. The most important form of communication and self-expression for him was painting, to which he devoted himself completely.
His mother was a Lemkin, so surely already as a child he had the opportunity to visit and admire the interiors of temples full of icons and art. Nikifor could not afford to buy a prayer book, so he created his own. This is how, in the 1920s, he created the unique Prayer Book, a notebook of about 150 pages in which the painter sketched in pencil various religious scenes and characters. The events studied in its pages take place in various locations: inside a temple, in heaven, in paradise and on earth. Fascinated by icons, the artist would select the motifs he found most interesting and redraw them in his own way in his notebook. These sketches are a mixture of shrines and images he had the opportunity to admire while travelling through villages in the picturesque Poprad Valley. The drawings were additionally accompanied by short captions, with errors characteristic of the illiterate Nikifor. It is possible that the Prayer Book also served him as a model for other works, especially as Orthodox art played a very important role in his work. Following the example of icons, the painter gave his works a solemn tone. He often painted various saints and scenes set in the interiors of churches. Interestingly, in the company of holy dignitaries, he also portrayed himself as an equal in rank, often entering into intimate relationships with the figures. It seems that they were his best friends, whose names he shouted enthusiastically when, among other things, he visited the exhibition of icons in the Nowy Sącz district museum.
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