Melanie Kent Steinhardt

Melanie Kent Steinhardt
Born	May 26, 1899 Lemberg, Poland
Died	January 17, 1952 Los Angeles, CA
Movement	Expressionism

Melanie Kent Steinhardt

Melanie Kent Steinhardt (May 26, 1899 – January 17, 1952) was a Bohemian American painter, printmaker, and ceramicist.

Early Years

Kent Steinhardt was born in Bohemia in the town of Lemberg, Poland (currently Lvov, Ukraine), which was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. She and her parents, Leopold and Isabella Heller (née Blaustein) were secular Jews. The artist was raised in her father’s hometown, Saaz, Bohemia (currently, Zatec, Czech Republic), in the hops-growing region west of Prague. As a teenager, she attended Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Vienna, Austria.

In the summer of 1921, in nearby Marienbad (currently Marianski Lasne, Czech Republic), the Heller family encountered a Bavarian merchant, Fritz Steinhardt, who profoundly altered the lives of the Heller family.

First Marriage

Fritz Steinhardt ultimately became Mela's husband, and moved Mela, then 23, to Berlin, Germany, where for a privileged decade, she honed her painting techniques with distinguished professors, such as Willi Jaekel, at the Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen (Union of Berlin Women Artists' School).

One month prior to the birth of her first child, Melanie’s mother and sister were asphyxiated due to a faulty gas line in their apartment Fritz Steinhardt’s hometown, Fürth, Bavaria.

Fritz and Melanie Steinhardt raised two children, Edith (born 1923) and Gerhart (born 1925).

Ultimately, the Steinhardts' marriage failed, and the artist was banished from the family’s Dahlem, Berlin home.

Second Marriage

In 1933, Melanie Steinhardt married Alfred Kent, a Viennese attorney. They lived for several years at Villa Freiberg in Zell am See, Austria, in the house presented to Melanie by Fritz Steinhardt on their honeymoon in 1923.

Emigration

Shadowing her children across Europe, and ultimately to the United States, Melanie and Alfred Kent made their way from New York City to Hollywood in 1943. By the end of World War II, the artist returned to painting and etching. The couple moved to Inglewood, California in 1946.

Ceramics

Mela manufactured handmade ceramic tableware under the brand Kent Handmade, which she initially glazed and fired in the Kent’s garage in Inglewood. From 1948 until her death, Kent Steinhardt owned and operated the Home Decorators Hobby Shop on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles. She produced and taught ceramics, painting, sewing, and crafts.

Expressionist Art

Kent Steinhardt’s compositions, portraits and landscapes blend European Expressionism with an émigré’s troubled impressions of her new American life. Much of the work Kent Steinhardt created in her final years depict complex existential themes, reminiscent of German Expressionists such as James Ensor, Max Beckmann, and George Grosz.

Death

Melanie Kent Steinhardt died due to carbon monoxide poisoning in her Robertson Boulevard shop in January 1952. She was 52 years old.

References

• Hill, Richard T., Mela - The Life and Art of Melanie Kent Steinhardt, Rabbit Hill Press, 2002.[1]
• Weber, Joanna, Assistant Curator of European and Contemporary Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Foreword, Mela - The Life and Art of Melanie Kent Steinhardt, Rabbit Hill Press, 2002.

Exhibition

• A retrospective of the artist’s work was presented at California State University Sonoma in 2006.[2]

Persondata
Name	Steinhardt, Melanie Kent
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 26, 1899
Place of birth	Lemberg, Poland
Date of death	January 17, 1952
Place of death	Los Angeles, CA