Posted on by florianduijsens

Podcast #46: Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

In this edition of the Dead Ladies Show Podcast, DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens introduces us to the eccentric Dada artist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. An eternally eclectic, German-born New Yorker, the Baroness was known for living life as a work of art, wearing a collage of found items, from tin cans to postage stamps to live birds, seducing almost everyone she met, and creating mind-blowing poetry and sculptures, yet never making any money off them. These days, she deserves some reclaimed recognition for creating the found art genre known as readymades, including a particular infamous sculpture credited to French artist Marcel Duchamp (or Marcel Dushit, as the Baroness called him.)

DLS other co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce the show, which was recorded in front of a live audience of enthusiastic college students as part of Bard College Berlin‘s student-organized Pankumenta festival back in 2019.

**This episode contains brief mentions of suicide and suicide attempts as well as some humorous profanity**

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Acast. You can download the transcript, created by Annie Musgrove, here.

Notes:

Charles Sheeler The Baroness’s Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, ca. 1920 Gelatin silver print 9 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches
The opening quiz’ images: Elsa modeling for Man Ray, Elsa’s portrait of Duchamp, and Elsa’s famous readymade (appropriated by Duchamp)
Berlin’s Wintergarten theatre
Melchior Lechter’s Orpheus, for which Elsa modeled
Elsa’s beaus: Melchior Lechter, Ernst Hardt, Oscar (brother of Richard) Schmitz, and August Endell
Some of Endell’s now lost handiwork: Hofatelier Elvira, run by lesbian power couple Anita Augspurg and Sophia Goudstikker
Felix Greve, translator of Oscar Wilde and André Gide – later to reinvent himself as the Canadian Frederick Philip Grove
Elsa arrives in the US!
Alone again, Elsa poses in her apartment.
The great Brittany Murphy posing in outfits inspired by Elsa’s outlandish outfits
God (1917)
Cathedral (1918)
Do check out Irene Gammel’s biography Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity and the gorgeous edition of Elsa’s writing called Body Sweats that Gammel edited with Suzanne Zelazo.

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.