Dada-Ikone in New York. Die Performance- Künstlerin Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Abstract An innovator in cross-disciplinary art forms and the use of found objects, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927) was America’s earliest performance artist. She was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances. A poet, sculptor, and model, she literally embodied the avant-garde dada movement in New York from 1913-1923. During her sojourns in Berlin, Munich, New York, and Paris, she shocked viewers with her performances and adornments such as a tomato can bra, teaspoon earrings, and black lipstick. She erased the boundaries between life and art, the everyday and the outrageous, and the creative and the dangerous. Her performances prefigured feminist body art and performance art by nearly half a century. In the 21st century she has come into her own with an international come-back.