Hans Richter: Activism, Modernism, and the Avant-Garde
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Cover illustrations: film still from Inflation; detail from Rhythmus 23 (Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano). © Hans Richter Estate. 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. The essays in this book, which accompanied a major 1998 Richter retro- spective held in Valencia, Spain, and at HANS RICHTER the University of Iowa Art Museum, are ACTIVISM, MODERNISM, organized roughly around the expression- AND THE AVANT-GARDE ist and Dada years, Richter’s short tenure in Munich’s postwar revolutionary Second edited by Council Republic, his central involvement Few artists spanned the movements of in international constructivism and the early twentieth-century art as completely development of the abstract cinema, and as did Hans Richter. Richter was a major Stephen C. Foster the politicization of film that arose from his force in the developments of expression- anti-Nazi activities of the late twenties and HANS RICHTER HANS RICHTER ism, Dada, De Stijl, constructivism, and thirties. surrealism, and the creator, with Viking Stephen C. Foster is Professor in the Eggeling, of the abstract cinema. Along School of Art and Art History at the ACTIVISM, MODERNISM, with Theo van Doesburg, László Moholy- University of Iowa. Nagy, El Lissitzky, and a few others, he is AND THE AVANT-GARDE edited by Foster one of the artists crucial to an understand- “The articles in Stephen Foster’s skillfully Stephen C. Foster ing of the role of the arts in the recon- edited anthology put Hans Richter into the struction era following World War I. After context of political and social events which , editor his emigration to the United States in #489368 12/8/99 formed the crucible of his work. This task 1941, he contributed enormously to mod- of historical recovery makes a vital contri- ernism in the United States and served as bution to understanding the link between an important conduit between the American and European art communities. form and ideology in the work of this signifi- Most American scholars have cant early and influential twentieth-century focused on Richter’s film work and have figure. A valuable work—not just for the favored a strictly formalist approach that study of Richter, but as a model of current separates art and politics. The contribu- scholarship.” tors to this book rewrite Richter’s history to Johanna Drucker, Department of Art include his pivotal role in the development History, Yale University The MIT Press ,!7IA2G2-fgbcjh!:t;K;k;K;k Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 http://mitpress.mit.edu FOSHP 0-262-56129-8 HANS RICHTER HANS RICHTER ACTIVISM, MODERNISM, AND THE AVANT-GARDE edited by Stephen C. Foster Published in collaboration with the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 1998 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopy- ing, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permis- sion in writing from the publisher. All images by Hans Richter Hans Richter Estate. Figure 1.1 Man Ray TrustÐADAGP/ARS, 1997. This book was set in Helvetica by Graphic Composition, Inc. and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hans Richter : activism, modernism, and the avant-garde / edited by Stephen C. Foster. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-06196-1 (alk. paper) 1. Richter, Hans, 1888±1976ÐCriticism and interpretation. I. Foster, Stephen C. PN1998.3.R535H36 1998 7009.92Ðdc21 97-31931 CIP CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments xi Hans Richter: Prophet of Modernism Stephen C. Foster 2 Abstraction, Autonomy, and Contradiction in the Timothy O. Benson 16 Politicization of the Art of Hans Richter Hans Richter, Munich Dada, and the Munich Republic of Justin Hoffmann 48 Workers' Councils Hans Richter: Constructivist Filmmaker Justin Hoffmann 72 Hans Richter and the Constructivist International Bernd Finkeldey 92 Richter's Films and the Role of the Radical Artist, Marion von Hofacker 122 1927±1941 Hans Richter in America: Traditional Avant-Garde Values/ Estera Milman 160 Shifting Sociopolitical Realities Appendix: Demonstration of the ªUniversal Languageº Hans Richter 184 Chronology Marion von Hofacker 240 Bibliography Marion von Hofacker 280 Contributors 316 Index of Names 320 List of Illustrations All illustrations by Hans Richter, unless otherwise indicated. 1.1: Man Ray, photo portrait of Hans Richter, c. 1930 5 1.2 (and plate 1): Stalingrad, 1946 7 1.3 (and plate 2): Revolution, 1914 11 1.4: Cover of Revolution, 1913 11 1.5: Study for PraÈludium, 1919 12 1.6: Strip from In¯ation, 1928 13 2.1: Arbeiter, 1912 18 2.2 (and plate 3): Cello, 1914 19 2.3: Study for Konzert, c. 1916 19 2.4: SelbstportraÈt (akademisch), c. 1912 21 2.5 (and plate 4): Ku'damm, 1913 22 2.6 (and plate 5): LandschaftÐSchlittenfahrt, c. 1915 22 2.7: AÈ therisch, c. 1918 23 viii 2.8: Musik, 1916 26 2.9: Dada-Kopf Redner, 1918 26 2.10: Cafe OdeÂon, 1917 28 2.11: Corray der Blaubart, 1917 29 2.12: Groteske (Die Welt den Ochsen und den Schweinen), 1917 32 2.13: Kaiser Wilhelm als Befehlshaber des Todes, 1917 32 2.14: Visionary PortraitÐEmmy Hennings, 1917 35 2.15 (also plate 6): Lokomotivseele/Visionary Portrait, 1916±17 35 2.16: Revolution, 1917±18 39 2.17: Der Fr(e)ie Verlag, 1917 40 3.1: Portrait of Hugo Ball, 1917 52 3.2: Cover of Die Aktion, 1916 53 3.3: Dada-Kopf (Alfred Wolfenstein), 1917 53 3.4: An die MuÈtter Europas, 1917 56 3.5: Study for Revolution, c. 1918 57 3.6: Dada-Kopf, 1919 57 4.1: PraÈludium, page 6, 1919 77 4.2: Still from Rhythmus 21, 1921 79 4.3 (and plate 7): Rhythmus 23, 1923 84 4.4 (and plate 8): Orchestration der Farbe, 1923 84 4.5 (and plate 9): Study for Rhythmus 25, 1923 87 5.1: Photographer unknown, Hans Richter and Nelly and Theo van Doesburg in Berlin, c. 1921 98 List of Illustrations ix 5.2: Photographer unknown, participants of the Congress for International Progressive Artists, DuÈsseldorf, 1922 104 5.3: Walter Dexel's guest book 106±107 5.4: Photographer unknown, participants of the founding congress of the Constructivist International, Weimar, 1922 108 5.5: Kasimir Malevich's ®lm script dedicated to Hans Richter, pages 1±3 114±115 6.1: Strip from In¯ation, 1928 128 6.2: Still from Vormittagsspuk, 1928 134 6.3: Still from Vormittagsspuk, 1928 135 6.4: Image from Rennsymphonie, 1928±29 137 6.5: Photographer unknown, members of the Congress of Independent Cinema, La Sarraz, 1929 145 6.6: Still from Metall, 1933 153 7.1: Photographer unknown, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Hans Richter in Richter's studio in New York, 1953 163 7.2 (and plate 10): Liberation of Paris, 1944±45 167 7.3: Photographer unknown, Hans Richter, Director of New York City College Film Institute, c. 1949 171 7.4: Still from Dreams That Money Can Buy, 1944±47 175 9.1: Photographer unknown, Hans Richter in Hoppegarten Military Hospital, 1916 244 9.2: Poster by Hans Richter for exhibition at Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, 1916 245 9.3: Photographer unknown, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, and Hans Richter in Zurich, 1917 249 x 9.4: Artist unknown, poster for the eighth Dada soireÂe, 1919 252 9.5: G, cover of ®rst issue, July 1923 259 9.6: Photographer unknown, Hans Richter, Sergei Eisenstein, and Man Ray in Paris, 1929 263 9.7: Photographer unknown, Hans Richter, Robert J. Flaherty, and Joris Ivens in New York, 1944 270 9.8: Photographer unknown, Hans Richter at City College, New York, 1956 271 9.9: Photographer unknown, Hans Arp and Hans Richter in the Ticino, c. 1963 273 Acknowledgments If I remember correctly, the beginning of this project dates from a phone conversation with Wendy Hawley-Ruppel. Al- though I cannot recall the exact content of the conversation, it prompted me to call Hans Ruppel and Ursula Lawder, son and daughter of Hans Richter and executors of the Hans Richter Estate. It was at that point, on the eve of the Richter centennial, that plans were ®rst discussed for a monograph and retrospective exhibition. As in all such ventures, this book project has relied on the advice and encouragement of many partiesÐindividuals, galleries, and institutionsÐwithout whose help the project would not have been realized. Foremost among these, I wish to thank Ursula Lawder and Hans Ruppel for the complete support of the Estate. At a point when the lack of such coop- eration is legendary, their facilitating role, enthusiasm for the project, and complete trust in its direction have been truly remarkable. Also deserving of special thanks is Marion von Hofacker, long identi®ed as a leading Richter expert and in- strumental in most past Richter exhibition projects of signifi- cance; she contributed enormously to this book. The University of Iowa Museum of Art lent crucial sup- port to this book and the upcoming exhibition through the xii acquisition of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. The Museum also gave generously of the leadership and staff time required for the success of these projects. I am particu- larly grateful to Stephen Prokopoff, Director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Pam Trimpe, Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and Robin Braun, assistant to Ms.