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Enjoy a meeting of our two most famous Rusyn painters!

When Andy Warhol met Nykyfor Krynytskii

 

Sunday, April 26, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
Erie Art Museum Annex, 20 East 5th Street, Erie, Pa.

There are no official reports of a meeting of the world-famous painter from the Warhola family of Miková, Slovakia and the famed painter from Krynica, Poland. The two Rusyn artists will be together, perhaps for the first time, as we bring their life stories together with a Rusyn viewpoint.

The contrasts and similarities in their lives are striking:
• Both are icon painters: one famous for icons of the New World of modern American life through Pop Art. The other famous as one of the finest primitive painters of icons of the Old World Carpathian Mountains, churches and villages near Krynica.
• Both have several names: Andy Warhol b. Andrew Warhola and Nykyfor Krynytskii/Nikifor Krynicki b. Epifanii Drovniak
• Both have museums in Rusyn Europe. The Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art was established by his American family in Medzilaborce, Slovakia, and, on the north slope of the mountains, The Muzeum Okregowe in Nowy Sacz, Poland contains over 1,000 works, some at the related Nikifor Museum in Krynica.
• Andy’s parents were born 15 kilometers away from Medzilaborce, traveling to the mountains of Pittsburgh, while Nikifor wandered the streets of the spa town Krynica, where tourists traveled from throughout Europe.

Andy Warhol’s story is told by his Rusyn relatives living in their small village in Eastern Europe as they are interviewed in the documentary “Absolut Warhola.” The 2004 German film provides a fascinating and often funny view of how they knew Andy, plus reveals the current life of his relatives today, in his family village in this most remote corner of Slovakia, bordering Ukraine. It features Michal Warhola and Janko Zavacky, with English sub-titles.

The life of Nikifor will be told by Eileen Zinchiak, also a Lemko-Rusyn, using research from biographies and international galleries featuring Central and Eastern European art. Several pieces of Nikifor’s original art work and reprints will be displayed.

 

RSVP and questions: –
please RSVP with your phone number.

 

Directions
Take I-90 east or west to I-79 north into Erie, which turns into the Bayfront Highway. Exit right (south) at State Street and travel 3 blocks to 5th Street, and turn left (east). Parking is available on the street and in the “Discovery Square” parking lot between State and French Streets.