Hans Richter: activism, modernism, and the avant-garde

Abstract

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. 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.

Contents

Hans Richter : prophet of modernism / Stephen C. Foster -- Abstraction, autonomy, and the contradiction in the politicization of the art of Hans Richter / Timothy O. Benson -- Hans Richter, Munich Dada, and the Munich Republic of workers' councils / Justin Hoffmann -- Hans Richter : constructivist filmmaker / Justin Hoffmann -- Hans Richter and the constructivist international / Bernd Finkeldey -- Richter's films and the role of the radical artist, 1927-1941 / Marion von Hofacker -- Hans Richter in America : traditional avant-garde values/shifting sociopolitical realities / Estera Milman -- Appendix : demonstration of the "universal language" / Hans Richter.