Diego C.
Back in 1917, Fountain had been submitted anonymously, but everyone just "knew" that it was Duchamp's, which the artist never denied. They figured that the signature -- one "Richard Mutt" from Philadelphia -- was merely one of his alter egos. But in 1982, a letter was uncovered from Duchamp to his sister, in which he wrote: "One of my female friends who had adopted the pseudonym Richard Mutt sent me a porcelain urinal as a sculpture." And it didn't take long for scholars to find her: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhove (gesundheit).
You probably never heard of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (you would've definitely remembered that name), but she is seen as perhaps the first great Dadaist in America. She moved to Philly with her baron/busboy husband after fleeing wartorn Europe, and became a conceptual artist celebrated by such luminaries as Ezra Pound and Ernest Hemingway. But while other artists loved the Baroness like they were members of Cobra, the Baroness loved Duchamp like he was Destro.
Further evidence backing her claim on Fountain was that she, like any good alternative type, was into found object art long before anyone else, including Duchamp. She'd previously made several other found art pieces with ironically grand titles, like a piece of wood named Cathedral and a plumber's tool she called God.
Morton L. Schamberg/Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Like that's such a stretch compared to a wooden cross.
