BIOGRAPHY: STEPHEN CSOKA |
Self-portrait in Artists Studio 1931 |
Stephen Csoka was born in 1897 in Gardony, a small farming village in Hungary.
At twenty-five, he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, one
of Europe's most prestigious art schools. He studied there from 1922-1927. By
1933, he was working full time as an artist and starting to win awards. He then met his future wife, Margaret.
She was born in Hungary but was by then living in the United States. Stephen met her
on her return visit to Hungary. They were married after a quick courtship, and in
1934, Stephen followed his new bride back to America. Stephen had established himself as one of Hungary's most promising young painters, but his arrival in America at the depths of the Depression was less than auspicious. The art establishment was not yet open to foreign artists and Stephen spent nearly eight years with his father-in-law as a house painter in Brooklyn. Undaunted, he continued to paint and make etchings. |
| In 1940, at the urging of a friend, he submitted several paintings to the
annual Washington Square outdoor exhibition. When he won the grand prize, he found a
patron at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York, which mounted his first one-man
exhibition in America. Csoka's work - especially his paintings
and etchings - earned him status in the professional art community and membership in the
National Academy of Design, the Society of American Graphic Artists, the Audobon Artists
Association and the Pastel Society of America. Awards and prizes continued to come
his way and he began a long career as a fine art teacher, first at the Parsons School of
Design, at |
Margaret Csoka (wife) 1935 |
Untitled 1935 |
A 100 year retrospective exhibition was held in 1997 at the Hofstra Museum of Art, Hofstra University. Stephen Csoka's work is found in museums and private collections throughout the United States and abroad. You can see his work by contacting Frank Csoka at csoka@optonline.net or in the following U.S.A. gallery locations: Vail Fine Art Gallery, Vail, Colorado; Beaver Creek Fine Art Gallery, Beaver Creek, Colorado; Aspen Fine Art Gallery, Aspen, Colorado.
|
|
