Kate Steinitz

Kate Steinitz (2 August 1889 - 7 April 1975), informally known as “the Mama of Dada,” was a German-American artist, preserver and collector of Bauhaus and Dadaist art, promoter, and, librarian. From 1945 until her death, she served as the librarian of the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana, first when the library was based in the collector's medical offices, and later as honorary curator when the collection was given to UCLA in 1961.

Steinitz is remembered for collaborative work with the Kurt Schwitters, and, in later life, her scholarship on Leonardo da Vinci.

Life Kate (at first called Käte or Käthe) Traumann was born into an upper-middle-class family in Beuthen, Upper Silesia (now Bytom, Poland). In 1899, her father, Judge Arnold Traumann, was transferred to Berlin, where she was educated. She attending drawing classes with Käthe Kollwitz and later the "Malschule für Frauen" (Women's Painting School) run by Lovis Corinth. She also attended the Academie und Studienateliers fuer Malerei und Plastik (connected with the Berlin Secession), the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and the University of Paris.

In 1912 or 1913, after returning from a study visit in Paris, she married a physician, Dr. Ernst Steinitz (March 25, 1881 - February 1, 1942). With the World War I in 1914, her husband joined the army as a military physician. In 1917, he was called to the front, and in 1918 the Steinitz family, which now included daughters Ilse and Lotti, relocated to Hanover. A third daughter, Beate, was born in 1920. Page from Die Scheuche: Märchen (The Scarecrow: A Fairytale), 1925, by Kurt Schwitters, Kate Steinitz, and Theo van Doesburg. While in Hanover, Steinitz painted portraits of her daughters. She also drew inspiration from dancers, entertainers, and performers, frequently featuring them in her drawings and paintings. Highly involved in the local art scene, she became an active participant in the emerging Dada movement, contributing to its growth and influence.

Steinitz collaborated with her friend Kurt Schwitters on several projects, including children's books, opera librettos, books, and festivals. Together with Theo van Doesburg, Schwitters and Steinitz produced several children's fairy-tale books that featured unusual typography, including Hahnepeter (Peter the Rooster, 1924), Die Märchen vom Paradies (The Fairy Tales of Paradise, 1924–25), and Die Scheuche (The Scarecrow, 1925). For the publication of their work, the artists founded their own publishing house, which they called APOSS, an acronym that stood for "A=active; P=paradox; OS=oppose sentimentality; S=sensitive."

In August 1942, Steinitz moved to San Francisco, California to be closer to her daughter Ilse.

In 1944, she became an American citizen and relocated to Los Angeles. She consulted Dr. Belt about a medical problem, and he recognized her attraction to and interest in his Leonardo collection. And though she had no formal academic credentials or training in librarianship, he appreciated her sophistication, intelligence, language skills, wide network of friendships abroad, and knowledge of art and books. Grateful to Dr. Belt for steady and fulfilling work, Steinitz threw herself into the job, transforming herself into a serious Leonardo scholar. In 1958, she published an important bibliography of the Treatise on Painting and in 1969 she was invited to deliver the annual Lettura Vinciana in Vinci, Italy, the highest honor for contributors to the field of Leonardo studies. In 1961, when the collection was transferred to UCLA, by which time she was 72, she was appointed Honorary Curator of the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana by Librarian Lawrence Clark Powell and Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy

Steinitz died on April 7, 1975, Los Angeles.

In 1994, a retrospective of her work was held at Severin Wunderman Museum, a private museum in Irvine, California which existed from 1985 to 1995.