Editing Hans Richter (artist) (section)

==Germany==
In 1908 Richter entered the Academy of Fine Art in Berlin, and the following year the Academy of [[Fine Art]] in Weimar. Richter's first contacts with [[Modern Art]] were in 1912 through the [[Der Blaue Reiter|Blaue Reiter]] and in 1913 through the [[Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon]] gallery [[Der Sturm]], in Berlin. In 1914 he was influenced by [[Cubism]].

At that time he also befriended Franz Pfemfert, who was the editor of ''[[Die Aktion]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hans Richter|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/richter-hans/|access-date=19 August 2022}}</ref> Richter contributed to the periodical ''Die Aktion'' in Berlin.<ref>{{cite book | author=Haftmann, Werner | title=Postscript to ''Dada: Art and Anti-Art'' | publisher=Thames & Hudson | year=1978 | isbn=0-500-20039-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/dadaartantiart00rich }}, p. 220</ref> His first exhibition was in [[Munich]] in 1916, and ''Die Aktion'' published a special edition about him. In the same year he was wounded and discharged from the army and went to [[Zürich]] and met [[Tristan Tzara]], [[Marcel Janco]], [[Jean Arp]], and [[Hugo Ball]], who together were forming the [[Dada]] movement, which he joined.

Richter believed that the artist's duty was to be politically active by opposing war and supporting [[revolution]]. His first [[abstract art]] works were made in 1917. In 1918, [[Tristan Tzara]] introduced Richter to [[Viking Eggeling]] and the two experimented together with film. Richter was co-founder, in 1919, of the Association of Revolutionary Artists (Artistes Radicaux) at Zürich. In the same year he created his first ''Prélude'': an orchestration of a theme developed in eleven drawings. In 1920, he became a member of the [[November Group (German)|November Group]] in Berlin and contributed to the Dutch periodical ''[[De Stijl]]''.

[[File:Rhythmus 21 (1921).webm|thumb|''Rhythmus 21'' (1921)]]
Throughout his career, Richter claimed that his 1921 film, ''Rhythmus 21'', was the first [[abstract film]] ever created, but in fact it was preceded by the Italian [[Futurism (art)|Futurist]] films by [[Bruno Corra]] and [[Arnaldo Ginna]]<ref>[http://www.futurism.org.uk/cinema/cinema.htm Article on Futurist Cinema] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021007063855/http://www.futurism.org.uk/cinema/cinema.htm |date=7 October 2002 }}</ref> (as they report in the ''[[Futurist Manifesto]] of Cinema''),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/cinema.html |title='The Futurist Cinema' Manifesto, 1916 |publisher=Unknown.nu |access-date=2014-08-18}}</ref> 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.

In 1933, [[The Nazis]] ransacked Richter's studio in Berlin, confiscating or destroying his work. He was stripped of his German citizenship and labelled a [[degenerate art]]ist and "[[cultural Bolshevism|cultural Bolshevik]]". After attempting, in vain, to make an [[anti-Nazi]] film in the [[Soviet Union]] in 1931–1932, Richter travelled around Europe. He worked for [[Philips]] in Holland and made commissioned films in Switzerland. He also gave numerous lectures about film.

About Richter's [[woodcut]]s and drawings [[Michel Seuphor]] wrote that Richter's black-and-whites graphic work, together with that of [[Hans Arp]] and [[Marcel Janco]], are the most typical works of the Zürich period of Dada. From 1923 to 1926, Richter edited, together with [[Werner Graeff|Werner Gräff]] and [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe|Mies van der Rohe]], the periodical ''G. Material zur elementaren Gestaltung.'' Richter wrote of his own attitude toward film:
<blockquote>I conceive of the film as a modern art form particularly interesting to the sense of sight. Painting has its own peculiar problems and specific sensations, and so has the film. But there are also problems in which the dividing line is obliterated, or where the two infringe upon each other. More especially, the cinema can fulfill certain promises made by the ancient arts, in the realization of which painting and film become close neighbors and work together.</blockquote>