18 APRIL 8, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
This prestigious artist lived in Woodhaven for nearly 30 years
PRESENTED BY THE WOODHAVEN
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Artist Stephen Csoka was born in
Hungary in 1897 and trained at
the prestigious Royal Academy
of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1934, he
moved to the United States with his new
wife, Margaret, and over the next few
decades, his paintings and etchings won
many awards.
He taught art for many years, both
at Hunter College and at the Fashion
Institute of Technology, and today his
work can be found in the permanent collection
of over 34 museums both in the
U.S. and abroad, including the Brooklyn
Museum, The Met, The Whitney and
the Library of Congress.
Respected in art circles around the
globe, Csoka was also a resident of
Woodhaven for almost 30 years, creating
many of his pieces from the studio
in his home on 87th Street, just north
of Jamaica Avenue. He lived a long and
fruitful life, passing away in 1989 at the
age of 92.
One of his most amazing pieces of
work is a personal series of paintings
that formed a collection entitled “Marital
Milestones,” annual gift s from the
artist to his wife Margaret.
Frank Csoka, the artist’s son (and
a talented artist in his own right), explained,
“He gave my mother a drawing
or a watercolor painting every year on
their anniversary and it would depict
the important things that happened
to them in the previous year of their
marriage.”
One of the anniversary gift s which
will be on display is from 1963, depicting
the family’s move to Woodhaven. In it,
the family is shown working together
on the new house, which needed plenty
of work when they bought it.
“When my father came from Hungary
he was rather well-known there, he had
won many awards. But when he came to
the United States, there was very little
interest in looking at a foreign artist’s
work,” Frank said. “So for the fi rst seven
years that he was in this country, he was
actually a house painter.”
In it, you see the artist climbing up
a ladder to paint their new home and
you also see a stork representing the
pending arrival of their third grandchild,
and son Frank graduating with
honors.
Starting in 1935 and lasting throughout
their marriage of over 50 years, this
collection is a unique visual autobiography
which allows you a very personal
and at many times humorous glimpse
into the life of an artist and his family.
Stephen Csoka was a remarkable
artist who possessed many other skills
and created a wide variety of styles of
art. One of the skills that he excelled
at was the creation of etchings on copper
plates. Once the copper plate was
World famous Hungarian-born artist Stephen Csoka lived for nearly 30
years in Woodhaven. Courtesy of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society
prepared, Csoka would cover it with a
very thin layer of wax.
He would then etch the drawing he
wished to create into the wax. Eventually,
the plate would be submerged
into acid where the wax would protect
the portions of the plate that were not
etched (basically, the white portions
of the fi nal product). Once the acid
etched grooves into the plate, and it was
cleaned, ink could be pressed onto the
plate and once properly cleaned, prints
on paper could be produced. These
were generally limited editions, and
numbered, making some of them rare
and quite valuable.
One etching that Stephen Csoka
created and won an award for was a
detailed and chaotic street scene all
created within the tiny space of a few
inches. Some of his work that would be
of special interest to residents of Woodhaven
and surrounding neighborhoods
in Queens would be his paintings of the
landmarked Forest Park Carousel, both
of which will be featured in an upcoming
book by the Woodhaven Cultural &
Historical Society.
One painting is a lovely depiction
of the original carousel, the one that
burned to the ground in December 1965.
There are precious few photographs of
this legendary carousel and this beautiful
painting may end up being the best
depiction of this long, lost amusement
ride.
Another painting was created in the
wake of that disastrous fi re. Csoka lived
nearby and took his camera up to the
park a few days aft er the fi re. The result
of that visit would be a stunning painting
showing the horror of a burned out
carousel, the charred horses frozen in
time, seemingly trying to escape.
These days, we don’t always take
the time to get to know our neighbors.
The shame of that is that one of your
neighbors might be a very talented
artist. For many years on 87th Street in
Woodhaven, that artist and neighbor
was Mr. Stephen Csoka.
One of Csoka’s Marital Milestones depicts the family’s move into their house on 87th Street in Woodhaven.
Courtesy of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
