He created the portrait of Fran Ksaver Meško in 1974, for the 10^th anniversary of the writer’s death (cast in bronze in 1984). Nikolić also created Meško’s death mask in 1964, which is kept by the Carinthian Regional Museum, while a smaller portrait head (1974) is on display in the Ksaver Meško Library in SLovenj Gradec.

Fran Ksaver Meško (1874–1964) was a writer, poet, playwright and priest. He was born in the village of Ključarovci near Ormož. As a priest, he worked in various places in the Koroška region (Škocijan near Lake Klopein, Žabnice in the Kanal valley, Kneža, Šentanel, Marija na Zilji, Korte, Tinje, Apače, the deanery of Dobrla vas). After the changes following World War I, the conditions worsened, he was afraid of being taken by the Austrian “volkswehr” groups, so he was constantly on the run and in hiding. In 1919, he finally fled across the Karawanks. After the Carinthian Plebiscite was lost, he could not return to Austrian Carinthia, so he first served in Šental above Prevalje, and in 1921 he took over the parish in Sele near Slovenj Gradec, where he remained until his death. During World War II, he was exiled, but he awaited the end of the war in the Stična monastery. He wrote love poems, patriotic and devotional songs, prose and plays, mostly for the Mohorjeva založba publising house. His legacy is kept by the Carinthian Central Library in Ravne, the Regional Archive in Maribor and the Carinthian Regional Museum in Slovenj Gradec, where there is a memorial room devoted to him.

Text: Marko Košan