Emmy Hennings | the artist


The artist Emmy Hennings
Born Jan 17 1885, Flensburg, Germany.
Died Aug 10 1948 Sorengo-Lugano, Switzerland.

Style and technique of the artist: Writing, Dada, Performance Art,


Biography and art, auction, artworks, interview, statement, website:







Original artworks, prints, exhibition posters, monographs, books, collectibles.

To you it’s as if I was already

Marked and waiting on Death’s list.

It keeps me safe from many sins.

How slowly life drains out of me.

My steps are often steeped in gloom,

My heart beats in a sickly way

And it gets weaker every day.

A death angel stands in the middle of my room.

Yet I dance till I’m out of breath.

Soon lying in the grave I’ll be

And no one will snuggle up to me.

Oh, give me kisses until death.

In the case of Hennings, this emphasis is reversed. Hennings was a ribald character, by all accounts, who occasionally resorted to prostitution to support herself and her partner Hugo Ball, and her performative contributions to Cabaret Voltaire have consequently been viewed through a moralising lens in the memoirs of her peers…
Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings
Visionary Portrait – Emmy Hennings


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