Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Letters

Duchamp’s Fountain was not the work of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

A visitor looks at Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp at Tate Modern in London, 2008.
A visitor looks at Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp at Tate Modern in London, 2008. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex

It would be a cruel irony if Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was, in the end, remembered only for the false claim that she was responsible for the most famous work of conceptual art of the 20th century: Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (‘Sleep with everyone! Be embarrassing!’ – the dada baroness who shocked society, 31 May).

Originating in a campaign to discredit Duchamp and modern art as a whole, which hitched itself to the campaign to rehabilitate a forgotten woman artist and poet, the claim has been totally discredited – see atlaspress.co.uk/marcel-duchamp-was-not-a-thief

There are good reasons to admire the baroness, as a poet, performance artist and object-maker, as the current exhibition at Mimosa House in London reveals, but the idea that she was in any way responsible for Fountain is a joke – of which I hope she will not end up the butt.
Dawn Adès
Professor emerita of art history and theory, University of Essex

Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.