Kate Steinitz studied at the Academie und Studienateliers fuer Malerei und Plastik (connected with the Berlin Secession), at the Ecole de la Grand Chaumiere and the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1921 her work was exhibited with the Hanover Secession and in 1924 she worked on a book with Kurt Schwitters and founded Aposs Verlag, primarily to publish typographically new and progressive work. In 1925 she designed a children's book with Schwitters and Theo Van Doesberg.
In 1935 she was notified by the Reichsschrif-Humskammer that she could no longer write for German publications. So by 1936 she had emigrated to the US, joining her husband who was already in New York. She worked as a freelance artist and researcher from 1936 to 1942. In 1940 she organized the exhibition “New Americans” at the New York World's Fair. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1944 and from 1945 to 1975 held the position of art historian and librarian at the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana.