- Hans Richter (artist)
Hans Richter (
April 6 ,1888 –February 1 ,1976 ) was a painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. [ [http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/oisteanu/oisteanu10-27-04.asp] Artnet.com- Valery Osteanu] He was born inBerlin into a well-to-do family and died inMinusio , nearLocarno ,Switzerland .Germany
Richter's first contacts with
modern art were in 1912 through the "Blaue Reiter" and in 1913 through the "Erster Deutsche Herbstsalon " gallery "Der Sturm ", inBerlin . In 1914 he was influenced bycubism . He contributed to the periodical "Die Aktion" in Berlin. [cite book | author=Haftmann, Werner | title=Postscript to "Dada: Art and Anti-Art" | publisher=Thames & Hudson | year=1978 | id=ISBN 0-500-20039-4, p220] His first exhibition was inMunich in 1916, and "Die Aktion" published as a special edition about him. In the same year he was wounded and discharged from the army and went toZürich and joined theDada movement.Richter believed that the artist's duty was to be actively political, opposing war and supporting the revolution. His first abstract works were made in 1917. In 1918, he befriended
Viking Eggeling , and the two experimented together with film. Richter was co-founder, in 1919, of theAssociation of Revolutionary Artists ("Artistes Radicaux") at Zürich. In the same year he created his first "Prélude" (an orchestration of a theme developed in eleven drawings). In 1920 he was a member of the November group in Berlin and contributed to the Dutch periodical "De Stijl ".Throughout his career, he claimed that his 1921 film, "Rhythmus 21", was the first
abstract film ever created. This claim is not true: he was preceded by the Italian FuturistsBruno Corra andArnaldo Ginna between 1911 and 1912 [ [http://www.futurism.org.uk/cinema/cinema.htm Article on Futurist Cinema] ] (as they report in the "Futurist Manifesto of Cinema" [ [http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/cinema.html 'The Futurist Cinema' Manifesto, 1916] ] ), as well as by fellow German artistWalter Ruttmann who produced "Lichtspiel Opus 1" in 1920. Nevertheless, Richter's film "Rhythmus 21" is considered an important early abstract film.About Richter's woodcuts and drawings
Michel Seuphor wrote: "Richter's black-and-whites together with those of Arp and Janco, are the most typical works of the Zürich period of Dada." From 1923 to 1926, Richter edited, together withWerner Gräff and Mies van der Rohe, the periodical "G. Material zur elementaren Gestaltung." Richter wrote of his own attitude toward film::"I conceive of the film as a modern art form particularly interesting to the sense of sight. Painting has its own peculiar problems and specific sensations, and so has the film. But there are also problems in which the dividing line is obliterated, or where the two infringe upon each other. More especially, the cinema can fulfill certain promises made by the ancient arts, in the realization of which painting and film become close neighbors and work together."USA
Richter moved from Switzerland to the United States in 1940 and became an American citizen. He taught in the Institute of Film Techniques at the
City College of New York . [Haftmann, p222]While living in
New York , Richter directed 2 feature films, "Dreams That Money Can Buy " and "8x8: A Chess Sonata" in collaboration withMax Ernst ,Jean Cocteau ,Paul Bowles ,Fernand Leger ,Alexander Calder ,Marcel Duchamp and others, which was partially filmed on the lawn of his summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.In 1957, he finished a film entitled "Dadascope" with original poems and prosa spoken by their creators:
Hans Arp ,Marcel Duchamp ,Raoul Hausmann ,Richard Huelsenbeck , andKurt Schwitters .After 1958 Richter spent parts of the year in
Ascona andConnecticut and returned to painting. [Haftmann, p222]Richter was also the author of a first-hand account of the Dada movement titled "Dada: Art and Anti-Art" [cite book | author=Richter, Hans | title=Dada: Art and Anti-Art | publisher=Thames & Hudson | year=1965 | id=ISBN 0-500-20039-4] which also included his reflections on the emerging
Neo-Dada artworks.Filmography
:"
Dadascope " (1961):"" (1957):"Dreams That Money Can Buy " (1947):"Vom Blitz zum Fernsenhbild " (1936):"Keine Zeit für Tränen " (1934):"Hallo Everybody " (1933):"Europa Radio " (1931):"Neues Leben " (1930):"Alles dreht sich, alles bewegt sich " (1929):"Everyday" (1929):"Rennsymphonie " (1929):"The Storming of La Sarraz " (1929):"Zweigroschenzauber " (1929):"Vormittagsspuk " ("Ghosts Before Breakfast", with music byHindemith ) (1928):"Inflation" (1927):"Filmstudie " (1926) with music byDarius Milhaud :"Rhythmus 25 " (1925):"Rhythmus 23 " (1923):"Rhythmus 21 " (1921)ee also
* ""
References
* Stephen C. Foster, "Hans Richter: Activism, Modernism, and the Avant-Garde" (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998)
* Hans Richter, 'Towards a New World Plasticism' in Mary Anne Caws, [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0803264070 "Manifesto: A Century of Isms"] (Lincoln, Nebraska and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001)External links
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0725257/ Hans Richter at IMDB]
* [http://www.ubu.com/film/richter.html Hans Richter films at Ubuweb]
* [http://www.youtube.com/results?search=related&search_query=hans%20richter%20filmstudie%20experimental%20animation%201925%202006%20zven%20surealist%20dadaist%20abstract%20stop-motion&v=uZI5nF_fzPY Hans Richter at YouTube]
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