Nikifor Museum in Krynica-Zdrój

The Nikifor Museum (Muzeum Nikifora) in Krynica-Zdrój is devoted to one of the world's best-known self-taught painters — Nikifor of Krynica, the Lemko Epifaniy Drovnyak (1895–1968). It is a branch of the Nowy Sącz Land Museum, which holds the world's largest collection of his works and memorabilia — more than a thousand items. The museum stands in the very centre of the spa, on the Dietl Boulevards, in the wooden villa Romanówka, reached by a footbridge over the Kryniczanka stream.

Romanówka was built in the second half of the 19th century as a guest house in the so-called "Swiss style" typical of Krynica at that time: a log building clad with painted boards, with a porch on profiled posts and triangular pediments above the windows and doors. The house originally stood on Piłsudskiego Street, fell into decay from the 1970s, and in 1990 it was dismantled and, after conservation in 1992–1994, rebuilt on its present site. The Nikifor Museum opened here in 1995; the villa is part of the Wooden Architecture Route of Lesser Poland.

Nikifor was born in 1895 in Krynica, at that time a town with a large Lemko majority. He barely learned to read and write, but he painted constantly — at first on scraps of paper, wrappers and bits of cardboard. The world discovered him in 1932, when the Lviv painter Roman Turyn sent some two hundred of his works to an exhibition in Paris organised by the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian People's Museum in Lviv. After Operation Vistula in 1947 the artist, according to Ukrainian Wikipedia, was deported to western Poland several times but each time returned to his native Krynica. True world fame came with an exhibition in Paris in 1959.

What to see

• Works from every period of his career — watercolours, gouaches and drawings: Beskid landscapes with Orthodox and Catholic churches, Krynica architecture, interiors, railway stations, offices, imaginary "dollar factories", self-portraits and military scenes. Experts regard his Beskid landscapes of the 1920s and 1930s as the peak of his work.
• The artist's modest workshop — simple wooden boxes with cheap paints and brushes, various kinds of paper, his bag and the original stamps with which he signed his pictures.
• The documentary section — photographs of Nikifor, Polish and foreign publications, posters and catalogues of his exhibitions around the world; on the façade there is a memorial plaque with a relief of the artist.
• Temporary exhibitions of naïve and folk art and art brut, as well as concerts, lectures and meetings.

Practical information

The villa stands on Krynica's main promenade, next to the Old Spa House and the pump rooms, so it is easy to drop in while walking round the centre. The museum has no car park of its own — use the paid public car parks nearby. It is closed on Mondays, has a lunch break from 13:00 to 14:00 on several days, and admission is free on Thursdays. 45–60 minutes is enough for a visit. The bright, small rooms are a good way to introduce children to naïve art.

Nearby: trails and peaks

A hundred metres from the museum runs the Main Trail of Beskidy, and our trails Bacówka PTTK pod Wierchomlą – Krynica-Zdrój and the Trail of Wincenty Pol also start in central Krynica. The spa itself is described on the page Krynica-Zdrój, and 5 km away stands the Lemko St James's Church in Powroźnik — Lemko churches like this one often appear in Nikifor's pictures.

Official website: muzeum.sacz.pl

Photos: Henryk Bielamowicz, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Henryk Bielamowicz, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Fmbar22, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Wlodek k1, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Antekbojar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.