Hans Richter

Biography

Richter's first contacts with modern art were in 1912 through the "Blaue Reiter" and in 1913 through the "Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon" gallery "Der Strum", in Berlin. In 1914 he was influenced by cubism. He contributed to the periodical Die Aktion in Berlin. His first exhibition was in Munich 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 to Zürich and joined the Dada 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 the Association of Revolutionary Artists 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 Futurist Bruno Corra…

Directed

1. Rhythm 21 (1921) — Director
2. Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928) — Director
3. Film Study (1926) — Director
4. Two Pence Magic (1929) — Director
5. Rhythm 23 (1923) — Director
6. Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947) — Director
7. Everything Turns, Everything Revolves (1929) — Director
8. 8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements (1957) — Director
9. Inflation (1928) — Director
10. Every Day (1929) — Director
11. Race Symphony (1928) — Director
12. Dadascope (1962) — Director
13. The New Apartment (1930) — Director
14. The New Apartment (Richter Studio Version) (1932) — Director
15. Europa Radio (1931) — Director
16. Metall (1933) — Director
17. Hallo Everybody (1933) — Director
18. From Thunderbolt to Television Screen (1936) — Director
19. Passionate Pastime (1958) — Director
20. Die Husaren kommen (1955) — Director
21. Neues Leben (1930) — Director
22. From the Circus to the Moon (1963) — Director
23. The Stock Exchange as a Barometer of the Economic Situation (1939) — Director
24. Hans Richter Early Works (2008) — Director
25. The Birth of Color (1938) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928)
2. Diaries, Notes, and Sketches (1968) — Self
3. Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2011) — Himself (archive footage)
4. He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1986) — Self (archive footage)
5. The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art (1974) — Self
6. Dada (1969)
7. Ich lebe in der Gegenwart - Versuch über Hans Richter (1973)
8. Germany Dada (1969) — Himself
9. Index – Hans Richter (1973)
10. German Film Award (1951) — Self
11. A Visit To Hans Richter (2003) — himself