85 - Stani Nitkowski (1949–2001)

Stani Nitkowski (1949–2001) The Gray Turban Oil on canvas, signed lower left and titled on the back, 73 x 60 cm René Nitkowski, his official name, was born in 1949 to a miner of Polish descent and a French seamstress. While two of his siblings died in infancy, he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a teenager—a progressive degeneration of muscle cells—and found himself in a wheelchair at age 23. It was then that he began to paint. Self-taught, he captured on canvas or paper the passions that drove him in a style that blends poetry, humor, and tragic emotions. Captivated by art brut, particularly the works of his mentors, Robert Tatin and Jean Dubuffet, he decided to abandon abstraction in the 1970s. He was supported by two influential Parisian gallery owners: first Cérès Franco, then Roland Vanuxem. As his color palette grew darker, he held a series of exhibitions not only in France but also internationally—in New York, Montreal, and Lausanne. In 1993, the Niort Museum dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him. Since his death in 2001, several galleries and institutions have paid tribute to him, notably the Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris. “Deep down, I am an Expressionist painter; I am of Slavic origin, and my greatest loves are Van Gogh, Goya, and Maryan.” Stani Nitkowski