Hans Richter

German-American Dadaist painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. His 1921 film, Rhythmus 21, is considered an important early abstract film.

He was born into a well-to-do family. In 1916, he went to Zürich and joined the Dada movement; moving from Switzerland to the United States in 1940 where he became an American citizen. He taught in the Institute of Film Techniques at the City College of New York.

While living in New York City, Richter directed two feature films, Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947) and 8 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1957) in collaboration with Max Ernst, Jean Cocteau, Paul Bowles, Fernand Léger, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, and others, which was partially filmed on the lawn of his summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.

In 1957, he finished a film entitled Dadascope with original poems and prose spoken by their creators: Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Hausmann, Richard Huelsenbeck, and Kurt Schwitters.

After 1958, Richter spent parts of the year in Ascona and Connecticut and returned to painting. In 1963, he directed the short film From the Circus to the Moon on the American artist Alexander Calder.

Richter was also the author of a first-hand account of the Dada movement titled Dada: Art and Anti-Art which also included his reflections on the emerging Neo-Dada artworks.

He died on 1 February 1976, aged 87, in Minusio, near Locarno, Switzerland.