Biography

Born Lena Deitchman on or about May 5, 1905 (the exact date is unknown), Lily, as she came to be known, was the third child, first daughter, of Sholom and Anna Deitchman of Dunaevtsy, a small town in the Ukraine, a part of the Russian Empire. Just prior to the start of the First World War, Sholom Deitchman left for the United States to build a better future for his family. Ill-fated events prevented Sholom from carrying out his plan to bring his entire family to the United States. Soon after his departure, the First World War commenced with Russia and Germany as enemies. The Russian Revolution in 1917, causing Russia to cease hostilities with Germany, resulted in civil unrest.

Working with clay, Ente soon developed an intense and everlasting interest that would ignite the most important phase of her life. Studying on her own, Ente viewed and studied works in museums and art books. The piece of clay provided by Xenia soon engaged her completely. At first, Ente used her family as models, particularly her daughter Paulette. She found someone to make the molds to cast her pieces into plaster, eventually learning to complete the process on her own. Her bathroom was her casting studio. Ente’s work quickly took on a sophistication and refinement.

Having exhibited her work at the Mari Gallery on Tinker Street in Woodstock, New York, Ente and her husband began to make regular day trips to this small town, an artist colony, just two hours north of Manhattan. Unsurprisingly, these trips, along with encouragement from Ente’s close friend Mari Huebsch, resulted in Ente and her husband buying a second home in Woodstock in 1962. They converted the barn into their private residence and Ente eventually erected a studio, reusing weather-beaten timbers probably from the old opera house. This uninsulated shack, heated only by an aged rusted stove, would serve as her studio in Woodstock for the remainder of her career.

1905 Born in Russia as Lena Deitchman 1918 Fled Russia with Family following the First World War 1919 Traveled with family to Romania