Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity--A Cultural Biography [Hardcover]

Irene Gammel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2002

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874?1927) is considered by many to be the first American dadaist as well as the mother of dada. An innovator in poetic form and an early creator of junk sculpture, "the Baroness" was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances. Some thought her merely crazed, others thought her a genius. The editor Margaret Anderson called her "perhaps the only figure of our generation who deserves the epithet extraordinary." Yet despite her great notoriety and influence, until recently her story and work have been little known outside the circle of modernist scholars.In Baroness Elsa, Irene Gammel traces the extraordinary life and work of this daring woman, viewing her in the context of female dada and the historical battles fought by women in the early twentieth century. Striding through the streets of Berlin, Munich, New York, and Paris wearing such adornments as a tomato-soup can bra, teaspoon earrings, and black lipstick, the Baroness erased the boundaries between life and art, between the everyday and the outrageous, between the creative and the dangerous. Her art objects were precursors to dada objects of the teens and twenties, her sound and visual poetry were far more daring than those of the male modernists of her time, and her performances prefigured feminist body art and performance art by nearly half a century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The ongoing feminist refashioning of the dada movement's history continues with this large, detailed and well-researched book, the first biography of the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927), one of dada's most daring and prescient figures. A poet, sculptor, painter and possibly the first practitioner of what came to be called "body art," the baroness (as she was known to all following a brief marriage to a bona fide aristocrat) cut a remarkable swath through the bohemias of New York and Paris between the turn of the century and the roaring '20s. Fearless and relentless in her pursuit of pleasure and cultural disruption, she would appear (here in 90 b&w illustrations of her person and work) with long, lean body virtually nude; shaved head decorated with feathers and long ice cream spoons for earrings; declaiming the urgent collage of her poetry; virtually stalking such intrigued but terrified figures as William Carlos Williams; and fashioning ready-made sculptures from the most humble of materials. The achievements of such a mercurial being are hard to assess (the phrase "you had to be there" comes to mind for many of her performances), and Gammel, professor of English at the University of Prince Edward Island, shows an unfortunate overeagerness to incorporate into the baroness's artistic project what often seems merely erratic behavior. The latter's kleptomania, exhibitionism and anti-Semitism are easily made to fit into a postmodern critical vocabulary, but often this seems more like special pleading than useful argument. Gammel's prose can be pedestrian and clichE-ridden; at one point, figures "plunge" into various activities three times in five pages. All of the basic information is here, however (along with a few of the baroness's hard-to-find poems), and the vast trough of notes will be invaluable for the scholarship this pioneer deserves.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

One of the early innovators of the Dada movement, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927) a.k.a. the Baroness has remained in relative obscurity until the publication of this biography, the result of intensive research by Gammel (English, Univ. of Prince Edward Island). Born in a German-Polish border town, the Baroness moved within a vast interconnecting circle of writers, artists, and social innovators in Europe and the United States, including Djuna Barnes, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and others. As an artist, she made startling collages and sculptures from found objects, metals, fabrics, and other varied materials, and her poetry was filled with the unconventional tone for which she was noted. As an individual, she pushed sexual boundaries beyond comfortable limits, lacquered her shaved head with vermilion, and wore tomato soup cans as a bra all generations before punk, performance art, and Andy Warhol. Although her unhappy childhood, early artistic and Dada expressions, and countless unorthodox sexual exploits are presented with scholarly precision and certainly illuminate her personality, it is the later chapters such as the one connecting her with William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound that most satisfyingly blend personal, artistic/intellectual, and social contexts. Gammel's work prompts readers to ponder whether the Baroness was a groundbreaking modernist, feminist, dadaist, artist, or merely a true eccentric of her time. Recommended for libraries with large collections on modern art and popular culture. Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262072319
• ISBN-13: 978-0262072311
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Dadaism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Baroness Lives!, June 12, 2005

By 

Sue Gilbert "Sugs" (Huddersfield, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity--A Cultural Biography (Hardcover)

Very well written compared to most art history books! This densely researched and hugely readable book brings to life a woman who was the friend and intellectual equal of Marcel Duchamp. The Dada Baroness was hugely important in the history of both fine art and poetry, yet is ignored in almost all standard art-historical reference tomes. Irene Gemmel brings her back from obscurity, she must now be included in all writing on the Dada movement, and beyond! Too many women artists have been ignored for too long by too many art historians. Demand that your library buy this book so that everyone can read it and give Elsa the recognition that she deserves.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazon's Poor Linking Practice., November 7, 2009

By 

Helmut Schwarzer (Newbury, NH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Baroness Elsa (Hardcover)

Neither the editorial nor the customer reviews have anything to do with book as described under Product Details (which is the autobiography of Baroness Elsa von Loringhoven). The reviews relate to the biography of hers, authored by Irene Gammel.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars could not put it down, December 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity--A Cultural Biography (Hardcover)

I have to say that this is the first biography I've read all the way through. It is like a Danielle Steel novel, although probably not as detailed. As a student of art history I thought this was a very interesting take of the New York Dada movement, where the Baroness was the first to do "ready-mades" before Marcel Duchamp. Overall I thought it was wonderfully written, and very interesting.