Press Release

HANS RICHTER

Dreams That Money Can Buy

February 5, 2004- February 28, 2004

New York, NY- Stendhal Gallery is proud to showcase three films by the renowned avant-garde artist Hans Richter (1888-1976). Richter is considered one of the early Dadaists, a form of art that was marked by nonsense and travesties as it opposed current aesthetic art standards.

Richter’s three astounding experimental films, Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947), Eight by Eight (1957) and Dadascope (1961), all explore revolutionary approaches in filmmaking. Dreams That Money Can Buy is collaboration with Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Alexander Calder. This first feature-length avant-garde American film contrives seven dreams that are offered for sale by Joe, a poor young poet with a rich imagination. Each dream episode is shaped by one of the contributing visual artists.

Eight by Eight “A Chess Sonata in 8 Movement”, with music by John Latoche and Oscar Brand, is the second of Richter’s elaborate cinematic collaborations. Richter pays homage to Lewis Carroll’s use of chess in Through the Looking Glass. Using humor and chance, Richter creates a heavily symbolic, surreal world where kings, queens, and other players on the chess board act out some of life’s episodes. Included are sculptor Alexander Calder constructing mobiles and setting them to motion, painter Max Ernst pursuing his wife, Dorothea, through the canyons of lower Manhattan and a rocky western landscape in an overplayed domestic struggle, and writer Jean Cocteau playing a pawn who whimsically becomes a queen. Eight by Eight is an imaginative journey through the symbols and satire of Surrealism.

Dadascope is a comprehensive portrait of the Dada movement with its specific techniques of sound and visual clash, word puns, chess, dice and other games of chance. Richter stated, “There is no story, no psychological implication except such as the onlooker puts into the imagery. But it is not accidental either, more a poetry of images built with and upon associations. In other words the film allows itself the freedom to play upon the scale of film possibilities, freedom for which Dada always stood – and still stands.”

Hans Richter (1888-1976), painter, graphic artist, filmmaker, and producer was one of the founders of the Dada movement. Richter opposed traditional approaches to art. His avant-garde style to filmmaking and art paved the way for many artists to come.

The opening reception will take place on Thursday, February 5th, 6-9pm.

For additional information, or to receive a press kit, please contact Stendhal Gallery.

Stendhal | Gallery
545 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
T 212.366.1549
F 212.366.1531
www.stendhalgallery.com