Charlotte Kellner, Hollywood. Fiesta Tropicale, Hollywood, Florida circa 1950. Oil on board, 29 by 39 inches. Signed lower right, inscribed on back Fiesta Tropicale. Scott Schlesinger collection.
A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Charlotte Kellner moved to Hollywood, Florida in 1926 from New York City. The bride of Dr. Arthur Kellner, the couple were two of the first pioneering residents of the city. Her husband, one of the first dentists in Hollywood, later became Mayor.
The Hollywood Sun-Tattler, May 15, 1952, published her painting, done in the early years of the Depression, The Curb Market, depicting a scene at Hollywood Blvd. and 21st Avenue where black men could meet waiting for work.
The Miami Herald noted that it took two years of persuasion by Eve Tucker for Kellner to agree to her 1954 one-man exhibit at Tucker’s Gallery on Miami Beach. The Herald in reviewing the exhibit called Kellner’s style modern, individualistic, with dramatic realism. Later the Miami Daily News in reviewing her exhibit at Eve Tucker Galleries noted: “We have a most favorable reaction to report upon. The majority of paintings appeal, they’re well lighted and adequately framed, and the artist, Charlotte M. Kellner, of Hollywood, was present at the preview, and though exhausted from continually answering questions about her work, she maintained her gracious demeanor throughout. She handles her paint, which she uses lavishly, in an unusually bold manner, giving the impression rather that it is the work of a man…. Earlier work is heavy with impasto and very vivid in color; some later work takes one into the realms of whimsy and fantasy…”
Education: Art Institute of Chicago; Francis Chapin; Russell Cowles; Doris Rosenthal. Died: April 14, 1989, Hollywood. Membership: Florida Federation of Art; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild; Art Guild of Boca Raton; Broward Art Guild; Palm Beach Art League. Exhibits: Miami Woman’s Club, 10th annual, North Bayshore drive, February 1938, Hollywood Pines; Cruise ship North Star to Caribbean Islands, March 1938; Pan American Art Exhibit, Miami Beach Art Gallery, April 1949, honorable mention, still life; Southeastern 4th Annual, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, October 1949; Hollywood Woman’s Club, March 16, 1950; Palm Beach Art League, March 1950, Annual Members Exhibit, Oil, Countryside; Art Guild of Boca Raton, March 1951; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, 1st Annual, February 1952, at Hollywood Recreation building, top floor gallery; Palm Beach Art League, March 1952, Annual Members Exhibit, Oil, Ebenezer Church; Palm Beach Art League, 34th Annual Members’ Exhibit, March 1952, Ebenezer Church (N.F.S.); Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild 2nd Annual at Black Forest Theater Restaurant, January 1953, Haitian Fire Dance; Eve Tucker Galleries, Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, February- March 1954, a one man show of landscapes, figure studies, still life’s, including, White Trees, Approaching Storm, Fire Dancer, Forgotten, Roadside Market-Haiti, Old Fashioned Bouquet, Barnyard-Michigan, The Blue Pitcher, Mountain Flower Shop, Light House Inlet, Autumn Time and the ebullient Fiesta Parade; American Painting at Miami Beach Art Center, April 1954, Umbrellas and Palms, exhibited earlier at Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild annual; Miami Beach Art Center, April 1955, with other artists from the earlier Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, 3rd Annual; Florida Federation of Art annual convention and exhibit, Miami Beach, November 1955; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, 5th Annual, at Recreation Building, March 1956, Dilapidated Barn; Palm Beach Art League 38th Annual, March 1956; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, 6th Annual, at Recreation Building, March 1957, honorable mention in oil, Studio Life; Messina Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, December 1962; Broward Art Guild, 13th Annual Members’ Art Exhibit, February 1971, second place for oil painting, Rolling Hills; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, in honor of 40th anniversary of the founding of Hollywood, November 1965, Fine Arts Building.
