We know only bits and pieces about the life of Nikifor — an enigmatic nickname of unknown origin. We know nothing of his father and his mother, deaf-and-mute like him, would have been a domestic servant, a beggar, or a prostitute. After the death of the latter, Nikifor drifted in his hometown, a seaside resort, but survived by selling his drawings and the care of the people who appreciated him. He would have started drawing at the age of thirteen, using all kinds of recovered media. His favorite themes were churches, train stations or streets. In the 1930s, his works began to circulate among Polish artists, then throughout Europe.
NIKIFOR (epifan DROWNIAK, known as)
