Few artists spanned the movements of early twentieth-century art as completely as did Hans Richter. Richter was a major force in the developments of expressionism, Dada, De Stijl,constructivism, and Surrealism, and the creator, with Viking Eggeling, of the abstract cinema. Along with Theo van Doesburg, László Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, and a few others, he is one of the artists crucial to an understanding of the role of the arts in the reconstruction era following World War I.Most American scholars have focused on Richter's film work and have favored a strictly formalist approach that separates art and politics. The contributors to this book rewrite Richter's history to include his pivotal role in the development of the early twentieth-century avant-garde and his political activism. When Richter's work, particularly that of his earlier, European career, is viewed in its historical and political context, he emerges as an artist committed to the power of art to change the fabric of social, political, and cultural affairs.
| List of Illustrations | ||
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Hans Richter: Prophet of Modernism | 2 | |
| Abstraction, Autonomy, and Contradiction in the Politicization of the Art of Hans Richter | 16 | |
| Hans Richter, Munich Dada, and the Munich Republic of Workers' Councils | 48 | |
| Hans Richter: Constructivist Filmmaker | 72 | |
| Hans Richter and the Constructivist International | 92 | |
| Richter's Films and the Role of the Radical Artist, 1927-1941 | 122 | |
| Hans Richter in America: Traditional Avant-Garde Values/Shifting Sociopolitical Realities | 160 | |
| Appendix | Demonstration of the "Universal Language" | 184 |
| Chronology | 240 | |
| Bibliography | 280 | |
| Contributors | 316 | |
| Index of Names | 320 |
Overview
Few artists spanned the movements of early twentieth-century art as completely as did Hans Richter. Richter was a major force in the developments of expressionism, Dada, De Stijl,constructivism, and Surrealism, and the creator, with Viking Eggeling, of the abstract cinema. Along with Theo van Doesburg, László Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, and a few others, he is one of the artists crucial to an understanding of the role of the arts in the reconstruction era following World War I.Most American scholars have focused ...