Untitled

Artist Ceija Stojka (1933 Kraubath an der Mur – 2013 Wien)

Object typePainting
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions
231 × 138,5 cm
SignatureSign. und dat. rechts unten: Ceija Stojka / 1. 1. 2004
Inventory number12216
Location Belvedere 21
Writer, painter, singer, and activist Ceija Stojka grew up in a family of traveling Lovara Romani people. As a child, she was deported to the concentration camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück, and finally Bergen-Belsen, from which she was liberated in 1945 along with her mother. In 1988 Stojka published her autobiography „Wir leben im Verborgenen (We Live in Secrecy)“, which was the first work in Austria to address the genocide of Sinti and Roma people under the Nazi regime from the perspective of a survivor. Shortly thereafter, the artist created the first of what would become more than a thousand paintings and drawings. Stojka divides her work into “light” and “dark” paintings: the former addressing happy childhood memories and the beauty of nature, the latter the horrors of the extermination camps. „Untitled“ from 2004 shows a colorful field of flowers in vibrant hues. It features recurring motifs such as a bird, a branch, or a piece of barbed-wire fence.

Cross Comedian