


Ceija
STOJKA
Ceija Stojka was born in Austria in 1933, the fifth of six children. Her family were Lovara Roma horse traders from Central Europe. Ceija was ten years old when she was deported with her mother, Marie Sidi, and other family members. She survived three concentration camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen. It was only forty years later, in 1988 at the age of fifty-five, that she felt the need and the necessity to tell her story and embarked on a vast act of memory. Though considered illiterate, she wrote several poignant books in a poetic and highly personal style. At the same time, she created powerful works on paper with her own colorful and strong style. She died in 2013, lefting behind about hundred works. In 2018, her artworks received a great receptionat a major exhibition at la maison rouge, Paris. That show developed into an exhibition that is now at Het Valkhof Museum in the Netherlands before going to Reina Sofia, in Madrid at the end of the year.