Teofil Ociepka (1891 Janów Śląski - 1978 Bydgoszcz), "Bird on the Moon," 1960

Biography
Primitivist painter, theosophist - one of the leaders of Janowska occult community. Through master Philip Hohman, he became a member of the Rosicrucian Lodge. A miner by profession, he was an electrician in the Kaiser Wilhelm mine. He became especially famous as a painter. He began painting around 1927 on Hohman's recommendation and persuasion. His works are moralistic and symbolic works that refer to fairy tales, legends, miners' lives and occult literature. They are characterized by a wealth of imagination and bright, rich colors. Next to Nikifor, he is the most famous Polish representative of primitivism. His work has achieved worldwide recognition. In 1946 he founded an art circle at the House of Culture of the "Wieczorek" coalmine, on the basis of which, in the fifties a group of talented amateur painters began to operate. The group was called the Janowska Group from the place of its establishment, or formally known as the Circle of Non-Professional Painters; among its members were Ewald Gawlik and Erwin Sowka. In 2001 the film "Angelus" was made, directed by Lech Majewski, which tells the story of the inspiration, life and work of the painters gathered around Teofil Ociepka - artist and Master of the Secret Sciences.