The first English monograph on the artist Ceija Stojka, an Austrian Roma writer, painter, activist, musician, and survivor of the Holocaust.

What Should I Be Afraid of? presents the work of Ceija Stojka (1933-2013), an Austrian Romni writer, painter, activist, musician, and survivor of the Holocaust. Beginning in the 1980s, Stojka created over a thousand drawings and paintings, whose subjects range from landscapes and recollections of her happy, prewar existence as part of a large horse-trading family to the mounting oppression of the Roma under the Nazi regime. Having survived the three concentration camps Ravensbrück, Bergen-Belsen, and Auschwitz as a child, Stojka left behind an oeuvre depicting her personal experience of arrests, exterminations, survival, and liberation, which was shared by millions. In addition to four scholarly essays, this book presents important examples of the artist's oeuvre and a selection of previously unpublished poems. 2023 marks the ninetieth anniversary of Stojka's birth and the tenth anniversary of her passing. This book further celebrates the thirtieth anniversary since Roma were recognized as an official ethnic group in Austria after years of activism during which Stojka stood together with other Austrian Roma to become part of the social majority.

Author: Stephanie Buhmann
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Hirmer Verlag GmbH
Published: 04/01/2024
Pages: 104
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 8.58h x 6.61w x 0.32d
ISBN: 9783777442723

About the Author
Stephanie Buhmann is head of visual art, architecture, and design at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. Lorely E. French, PhD, is professor of German at Pacific University. She has published extensively on Ceija Stojka and Romani Literatures. Together with Carina Kurta, she represents the Ceija Stojka International Association and is a member of the board of the Gypsy Lore Society. Carina Kurta, art historian and museologist, has been accompanying the Stojka's family for several years in the events surrounding Ceija Stojka's art. As a link between researchers, curators, and museums, she represents the Ceija Stojka International Association, together with Lorely French.