Before becoming a living work of art Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven it was just Elsa Pletz, an ordinary girl born in the Baltic and raised looking at the horizon and dreaming of escaping. From a narrow life, from a cruel father, from the absence of a mother who disappeared too soon. She was born in 1874 in Swinemünde, but left as soon as the opportunity arose. Destination Berlin.
To support herself, she worked as an actress in vaudeville and there she entered the circle of artists of that time. Finally, he could live the life he wanted. For free. After moving to Munich, she studied art at Dachau and met August Endell, an architect and representative of the then fashionable Jugendstil. They married in 1901, and a year after their relationship they had the poet Felix Paul Greve, his friend and lover of both. Together they spent happy years wandering around Europe, but the relationship soon soured. They were in Palermo when August left.
Elsa and Felix returned to Berlin in 1906 and were married a year later. Their finances, however, were in dire straits to the point that Felix had to fake suicide to avoid creditors. In the summer of 1909, with the complicity of his wife, he went to Canada. A year later, Elsa joined him. They retired to a farm in Kentucky, but neither was made for farm life. In 1911, Felix cut the rope, and Elsa did what she always did: stand up for herself. She returned to the theater, offered herself as a model, then moved to New York, where everything happened.
There she met and married her third husband, Baron Leopold von Freytag-Loringhoven, who fled Germany due to debt. From him, Elsa received only the title, instead of food, she had to continue to work. During the day in a tobacco factory, and at night as a model for photographers and artists. Posed for Man Ray and Teresa Bernstein, entered Dada artists tour. There he was uncomfortable, he really became her standard-bearer. Meanwhile, Leopold cut the rope to return to Germany.
Elsa published experimental poems in newspapers, created finished works (it is believed that Duchamp’s urinal belongs to her) and, above all, turned into a show. She wore tin cans instead of bras, curtain rings instead of bracelets, spoons instead of earrings. All items found on the street were taken from garbage cans. She dyed her hair green and her lips black. He stuck stamps on his face, wore a cake with lit candles on his head instead of a hat. He wanted to blur the line between art and life, make them match, and put the canons of female beauty in the pillory. An open bisexual, she did not hide her relationship, she did not hide her body, she showed her preferences, always frank, always provocative.
However, there was still not enough money, because she did not make a living from art, but lived as if it were art. In 1923 she returned to Germany, finding the country no less poor than she was. He managed to sell newspapers on the street and eventually left for Paris. There she could count on the help of her friends. Peggy Guggenheim lent her money for food, Djuna Barnes paid the rent. She was alone with her dog Pinky when she died of a gas leak in mid-December 1927, ending her life. That is, with art. Which for her were the same.
Source: Elle