Hans Richter: Encounters

A multifaceted interpretation of Richter's career as a filmmaker, artist, and writer, examining his pioneering work --with a special emphasis on film--in the context of his collaborations with some of the most important figures in 20th-century art. Hans Richter was a central figure in the avant-garde for more than 50 years. Born in Berlin in 1888, he joined the Zurich Dada group in 1916 and within a few years was producing some of the first abstract films ever created. In the 1930s he made commercial and propaganda films for both communist and capitalist interests--a phase of his career that has been, until now, little examined. After moving to the United States in 1940, Richter taught at the City College of New York, serving as a mentor to numerous participants in the New American Cinema movement. He worked alongside a virtual "Who's Who" of the avant-garde, including Arp, Bowles, Cage, Calder, Cocteau, Duchamp, Eisenstein, Ernst, Léger, Lissitzky, Malevich, Mies van der Rohe, Schwitters, and Tzara. This book examines the ways in which these "encounters"--to use Richter's own term--with other artists engendered creativity, originality, and meaning throughout his career. Including a chronology and Richter's first complete filmography in English, this volume sheds light on the relationships between modernism's most experimental artists, movements, and generations.