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Morgan Drawdy Modern Art and the Machine Dr Drawdy 1 Morgan Drawdy Modern Art and the Machine Dr. Katherine Anania November 30, 2018 Welcome to Dada “Dada art is anti-Art,” (The Art Story), was the chant and key idea behind the Dada Art Movement that started in 1915 and continued through to 1924. The New York and European Dada movements begin after the start of the first world war which was from 1914-1918. Dada started as a way to mock the art scene, high society, and capitalism, and when people reflect on this movement, their minds instantly travel to the outlandish ideas that the Dadaists presented and how they transformed the art scene. The movement itself began at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland which was created by Hugo Ball, a German author and the founder of the Dada movement. Many works of art made by New York Dada artists were produced in response to World War I, despite this war not taking place on American soil. By examining the works and life of the Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven, with respect to gender, I will explore how the effects of the war—fought an ocean away, yet still present in the American popular imagination—influenced her works. At the time of the war, there was an expected spike in patriotism and nationalism, but aside from that there were a lot of impending societal changes in the U.S. Before the war, gender roles were normative and difficult to escape. The men would go to work, and the women were expected to play the role as the mother, but these ideas of gender started to change as the war broke out, (Changing Lives). The men were either sent to war or told to stay in America to keep the basic business structures running. The women were recruited in helping war efforts, such as becoming nurses. After the war, these societal expectations of gender roles started to morph back into the way there were before the war, but not completely. In the paper Equivocal Masculinity, Amelia Jones states, “WWI paradoxically set in motion experiences that served to unmask the absence at the heart of these narratives or progress, undermining their truth value and leading to a culture of cynicism and irony.” (Equivocal Masculinity, 166). People did not know how to react to a war of this magnitude, so it is expected that the overall feelings of the people would be this developed cynicism and irony that she references in her paper. Considering the tragedy that the entire nation faced, there was this overarching sense of mourning that was mostly done in private. The nation was forced to rebuild and after the war that was the focus. What would this new nation look like? Towards the end of the war the tides shifted and on January 1st, 1918 the New York Times posted an article titled, “The New United States.” This article alludes to an increased sense of nationalism. They say, “War that wrings hearts and desolates homes brings into action lofty qualities of the human soul, fortitude, effort, sacrifice, honor, love of country, and it reveals to nations their own undreamed-of-strength and greatness; in the intense concentration of endeavor, their power is first made known,” (New York Times, 1918). The New York times also reported that there was a tremendous spike in the entertainment business, specifically in cinema. On January 2nd, 1916 an article stated that, “One out of every ten men, women, and children in this country visits a photoplay theatre weekly,” (New York Times, 20). In this paper I suggest that this increased attention to gender norms and escapism was a way to control the traumas happening on the national stage. It was easy to immerse oneself in popular fantasies about the war than be openly against it. Drawdy 2 One artist, who’s androgynous lifestyle labeled her as a radical exponent to the Dada Movement, was the Baroness Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven. She would parade around the streets of New York collecting objects from the streets and the gutters and ornament her body with them creating a New York City costume that she adamantly insisted was a form of art. She would use these costumes to put on her impromptu performances in the streets for the non-consenting passersby. Irene Gammel credits her such that, “single handedly she took art out of its designated museum spaces and performance out of the theater and the dancing halls,” (Baroness Elsa, 185). From a photograph of the Baroness in her studio, Irene Gammel narrates that, “Her studio surroundings look makeshift, as if to announce that creative élan arises in the midst of chaos: a sofa chair to the left sports a male jacket; a dark blanket partially covers the wall; there is a decorative plate on the wall; a cage with a bird hangs suspended from the ceiling; small carpets decorate the floor.” (Baroness Elsa, 171). The Baroness’s performances were spontaneous and often times messy, seeing as most of her content consisted of trash off the streets of the city; however, they rivaled these clear-cut edited performances that were seen in theatres. Her performances were viewed by happenstance and theatre performances were viewed by intention. Her life was filled with tragedy and irony, like that of a Shakespearean play. She was born in Germany where her mother died of ovarian cancer—a death for which the Baroness blamed her father because she believed that the cancer started from the untreated case of syphilis that her mother had contracted from her father. She had various flings with men across Europe and at one point on her journey she helped her first husband fake his own death and start a new life on Kentucky farmland. Despite the Baroness’ radical politically charged take on World War One, her experience with it was quite minimal. Her 2nd husband, Baron Leopold von Freytag- Loringhoven, heard news of the war in 1914 and decided to leave for Europe in hopes of redeeming his tainted honor. He left immediately carrying with him all of Elsa’s savings to join the war effort. Almost immediately he was taken as a prisoner of war for the duration of the war, about 4 years. After he was released he committed suicide on April 25th, 1919. Elsa recounted this action as, “the bravest of his life.” She herself decided to remain physically detached from the war, but this did not stop her from making artistic statements about it. Amelia Jones details one of her performances as, “A rangy German Baroness riding along with a French poilu’s trench helmet- perhaps the ultimate mixed metaphor of the Great War,” (Equivocal Masculinty, 162). This created this mixed metaphor due to the fact the France was Germany’s main enemy since the French and Prussian wars. So when she would prance around clearly siding with all things french, she was dismantling the side that were created by representing a joint union of French and German love. The Baroness would often mirror the events of the war on her body, such as the bombing of German trains carrying soldiers, and walk around New York City. She would wear such things as an aviator hat and a French Poilu’s blue trench helmet. While most European artists were actively fleeing from the war, she was acting out her own version of it. A lot of her anti-war artwork was portrayed in the sense of performance that the streets of New York had come to notice, but her more sculptural works, specifically one titled, “God” epitomized her Dada style, and irreverent sensible thinking. Her work can be compared to those of Marcel Duchamp and his readymade creations. God consists of a cast iron drain trap set on its end that is mounted on a miter box. She frequently is known to elevate common objects to art, inviting the viewer to question the value of fine art and challenge the division between art and everyday life. The baroness often depicted sexual innuendos in her works and comments on a things or people that she thinks have wronged her and this piece is no exception. The piece, “God” loosely resembles the male typical genitalia pointing towards Drawdy 3 heaven. This piece is thought to heavily represent her antireligious father who would equate the ritual of prayer with a trip to the restroom for urination. This is a critique on the male dominated society that she works and lives in and a comment of what she sees around her and what she grew up with. Ironically, a lot of her pieces were miscredited to male colleagues of hers. This piece in particular was accredited to Morton Schamberg, a photographer that she often worked with. People were more willing to accept her avant-garde pieces as made by men rather than by the true artist. Another example would be the idea of the “ready-made.” Marcel Duchamp is known to be the founder of the readymade, but it was in fact Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven who invented it. She started to use ready-mades in her art in 1913, two years before Duchamp stepped foot in New York City. She collected a rusted iron ring on the way to her wedding ceremony with the Baron. It was named Enduring Ornament in honor of their soon to be marriage in 1913. Ironically the art piece has lasted decades longer than her short marriage to the baron, but it is said to be one of her first readymade pieces. The readymade was created as an alternative to contemporary or popular art.
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