Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
dal 24/4/2002 al 15/6/2002
Segnalato da
24/4/2002
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, New York
The first exhibition devoted to the art and persona of this elusive yet influential German Dada artist. Featured in the exhibition are four rare, previously unknown assemblages by the Baroness. She was America's first assemblage artist, using materials found in the street for her art, and America's first performance artist, treating her body as a living work of art.
"Baroness Elsa yon Freytag-Loringhoven," the first exhibition devoted to the
art and persona of this elusive yet
influential German Dada artist, will open at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art on
April 25, 2002.
Elsa yon
Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927)--or simply "The Baroness," as she was best
known among her
contemporaries--was an émigré war widow, model, painter, sculptor, and poet.
During the years of World War I,
she was part of the New York Dada group, which included Man Ray, Marcel
Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and others.
She was America's first assemblage artist, using materials found in the
street for her art. It could also be argued
that she was America's first performance artist, treating her body as a
living work of art. She pasted postage
stamps to her face, explaining that it was a new form of and she was known
to have walked around the streets of
New York wearing a birdcage around her head with a live canary in it. Some
said she was mad; others claimed she
was a genius.
Featured in the exhibition are four rare, previously unknown assemblages by
the Baroness, as well as her Portrait of
Marcel Duchamp,immortalized in a photograph by Charles Sheeler. Her Portrait
of Bernice Abbott--borrowed from the
collection of the Museum of Modern Art--will also be included. The Baroness
herself will be represented in the form
of' a life-sized mannequin, adorned in a surprisingly modern outfit of her
own design (recreated by the costume
designer Pascal Ouattara), as well as a selection of paintings and drawings
of the Baroness by the American
painter Theresa Bernstein (who died in February 2002 at age 111).
Publications:The exhibition is designed to commemorate the publication of
Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and
Everyday Modernity, a biography by Irene Gammel (Cambridge: MIT Press).
Signed copies of the book will be
available at the gallery, as well as a separate 25-page catalogue
reproducing all works included in the exhibition.
Francis M. Naumann Fine Art specializes in the art of the Dada and
Surrealist periods, as well as a selection of
contemporary artists whose work displays related aesthetic sensitivities.
Image: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Limbswish, sculpture 1917-1919
Francis M. Naumann Fine Art
22 East 80 Street
New York, New York USA 10021
Tel : 212.472.6800
Fax: 212.472.6866