Teofil Ociepka

Teofil Ociepka (born April 22, 1891 in Janów Śląski, died January 15, 1978 in Bydgoszcz) was a Polish self-taught primitivist painter, occultist, and theosophe. Along with Nikifor, he was one of best known Polish primitivists.

Life

His occupation was a miner, working at the Giesche's coal mine in Katowice as a machinist in the power plant. During World War I he served as a soldier in the German army, where he was introduced to occultism. When he returned to Janów, he brought back with him the first works on occultism, including Athanasius Kircher's treatise on the Seventy Two Names of God. On the recommendation of his Swiss mentor, Philip Hohmann of Wittenberg, with whom he maintained steady correspondence, Ociepka became a member of the Rosicrucian Lodge and attained the status of Master of Secret Sciences. On Hohmann's direction, he organized a strong occultist community in Janów. He maintained contact with the Julian Ochorowicz Parapsychological Society of Lvov. He believed that he had a spiritual link with his master who telepathically inspired his art. Hohmann persuaded Ociepka to start painting circa 1927. He gave up his attempts in 1930 after receiving criticism from Tadeusz Dobrowolski, a Polish professor of art history and museum curator. He probably returned to painting either before or during World War II. After the war, he gained a supporter in author Isabel Czajka-Stachowicz, who in 1948 organized for him an exhibition in Warsaw, promoting him as "Polish Douanier Rousseau"

References

• Alfred Ligocki: Teofil Ociepka, Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne RSW Prasa, 1967
• Joanna Tofilska: Katowice Nikiszowiec. Miejsce, ludzie, historia. Katowice: Muzeum Historii Katowic, 2007, s. 142, 143. ISBN 978-83-87727-68-0.

External Links

(1) Seweryn A. Wisłocki, Master Teofil Ociepka: Between the Authorities and the Truth