Summary:
A continuation of the recent discussion on the real name of primitive artist Nikifor Krynicki vel Epifanii Drovniak, which has been a subject of court proceedings in Muszyna. Statements of people who knew him personally are given, including one by the Rev. Stepan Dziubyna, who said that the artist did not use his real name out of fear that he could be arrested and imprisoned for giving up the invented name. An ethnographer of Lemko background, Seweryn Wisłocki, has stated that Nikifor is the only artist from Poland who enjoys worldwide popularity and that Poles (including well-known propagator of Nikifor’s art and author of many books on him, Andrzej Banach) have been trying for years to extract Nikifor from Lemko culture.

The issue of the real name of the artist has been around for years, but it made it to the Muszyna court only when the newly-created Museum dedicated to the artist refused to make use of his real name. The case was opened by the Union of Lemkos with the help of a Warsaw-based lawyer, Hubert Izdebski, but now the public prosecutor might be entering the stage because of the conduct of the Museum which continues with the invented name and refuses to acknowledge the facts. The Museum, on the other hand, accuses the Union of Lemkos of using Nikifor’s case for promoting itself. It is also believed to fear that an eventual change of name will open the door to inquiries about Nikifor’s belongings, including the largest existing collection of his works that was taken by the Museum in Nowy Sącz because no relatives of the artist were found after his death.

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