Hedda Sterne - Biography

Biography

Sterne was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1910 as Hedwig Lindenberg. Born to Simon Lindenberg, a high school language teacher,and Eugenie (Wexler) Lindenberg. She was the second child with her only sibling, Edouard, who later became a prominent conductor in Paris. Sterne was raised with artistic values from a young age, most notably, her tie to Surrealism, which stemmed from a family friend, Victor Brauner. Sterne was homeschooled until age 11. Upon her high school graduation in 1927,at age 17, she attended art classes in Vienna, then had a short attendance at the University of Bucharest studying philosophy and art history before she dropped out to pursue artistic training independently. She spent time traveling, especially to Paris developing her technical skills as both a painter and sculptor. Hedda Sterne married a childhood friend Frederick Stern in 1932 when she was 22. In 1941 she escaped a certain death from Nazi encroachment during WWII when she fled to New York to be with Frederick. In 1944 she remarried Saul Steinberg and became a U.S. citizen. It is not mentioned if she ever had children. She was involved in many shows and exhibits in New York and practiced her art up until macular dgenration set in and she could no longer paint, but continued to draw. Then when she was 94 Sterne had a stroke that affected her vision and movement and thereafter was unable to make art at all.