Hans Richter

Directing

Hans Richter

Born 1888-04-06 · Berlin, Germany

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 and Arnaldo Ginna between 1911 and 1912 (as they report in the Futurist Manifesto of Cinema), as well as by fellow German artist Walter Ruttmann who produced Lichtspiel Opus 1 in 1920. Nevertheless, Richter's film Rhythmus 21 is considered an important early abstract film. 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. While living in New York City, Richter directed two feature films, Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947) and 8 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1957) in collaboration with Max Ernst, Jean Cocteau, Paul Bowles, Fernand Léger, 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 prose spoken by their creators. After 1958, Richter spent parts of the year in Ascona and Connecticut and returned to painting. In 1963, he directed the short film "From the Circus to the Moon" on the American artist Alexander Calder. Richter died in Minusio, Switzerland in 1976.

Acting credits

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches poster
7.3

Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

1968

The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art poster
6.4

The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art is a 1974 American documentary film directed by Herbert Kline. The film shows footage of great modern artists in their studios creating and commenting on their work, with narration and commentary by Orson Welles. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art

1974

Dada poster
8.0

1967 film directed by Greta Deseson about the Dada art movement. Featuring Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Hans Richter and Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia

Dada

1969

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life poster
8.4

A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas.

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

1986

Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film poster
6.8

Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community.

Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film

2011

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Ich lebe in der Gegenwart - Versuch über Hans Richter

1973

Germany Dada poster
6.3

This documentary concerns the contributions of German artists to the Dadaist movement. Created in 1916, the organizers rejected previous convention and delighted in nihilistic satire in painting, sculpture and literature. Comparisons are made between the movement and the political and social upheaval at the time of the release of this feature (1969).

Germany Dada

1969

No artwork available
NR

This piece had its world premiere as the opening film of the Hans Richter Tribute at Cinema Arsenal in the summer of 2003. The nine minutes of film are a compilation of all appearances of Hans Richter in Jonas’s films. The result is a new work, a singular contemporary document, which does not only capture Hans Richter, but shows him embedded in his environment.

A Visit To Hans Richter

2003

No artwork available
10.0

Dedicated to Nigel Gosling. Voice-over with Hans Richter reading a Dada text. Filmed in Locarno. Oesterreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna

Index – Hans Richter

1973

Behind the camera

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Every Day poster
6.9

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.

Every Day

1929

Every Day poster
6.9

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.

Every Day

1929

Dadascope poster
7.7

Free-associative images are juxtaposed with disorienting poetry in Richter's late work. The film is visual dynamite: Upside-down and reversed footage, play with shadows and light, billiards and dice and balloons-- suggestive and surreal images. Tenets of Dada writing, such as games of chance, punnery, wordplay and loud nonsense noise are foist upon the viewer as Dada poems are read / performed by their orignal authors.

Dadascope

1962

No artwork available
6.4

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

Inflation

1928

No artwork available
6.4

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

Inflation

1928

No artwork available
6.4

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

Inflation

1928

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

No artwork available
9.0

Pontresina, Switzerland, at the beginning of the 20th century. A ski jumping competition is about to take place.

The Champion of Pontresina

1934

Rhythm 23 poster
5.7

We watch white shapes dancing on black background, which changes when the white shape fills up the screen completely, and black lines and figures bounce around on the now white background.

Rhythm 23

1923

Dreams That Money Can Buy poster
6.0

An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of whom were emigres to the US during WWII.

Dreams That Money Can Buy

1947

Dreams That Money Can Buy poster
6.0

An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of whom were emigres to the US during WWII.

Dreams That Money Can Buy

1947

No artwork available
NR

New architecture and new design, houses and apartments built according to modernist and utilitarian principles.

Neues Leben

1930

No artwork available
NR

New architecture and new design, houses and apartments built according to modernist and utilitarian principles.

Neues Leben

1930

Film Study poster
5.8

Entertaining Dadaist experimental short, similar to Man Ray's work, full of shifting geometric shapes, stock footage of seagulls, flying eyeballs, and glaring floating heads.

Film Study

1926

Film Study poster
5.8

Entertaining Dadaist experimental short, similar to Man Ray's work, full of shifting geometric shapes, stock footage of seagulls, flying eyeballs, and glaring floating heads.

Film Study

1926

No artwork available
8.0

Commissioned by Philips, Europa Radio celebrates the company’s experimental PCJJ shortwave radio station in Eindhoven that went on air in 1927 and broadcasted to Europe as well as the rest of the world in various languages. Hans Richter’s film covers one day from morning to night, showing the range and scope of the daily radio programs – from stock market news and sports events to live concerts and a speech by Albert Einstein.

Europa Radio

1931

Passionate Pastime poster
NR

Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.

Passionate Pastime

1958

Passionate Pastime poster
NR

Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.

Passionate Pastime

1958

Passionate Pastime poster
NR

Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.

Passionate Pastime

1958