Rhythmus 23 (1923)
More Moving Cubism
7 April 2021
In the second of the Rhythm series, "Rhythmus 23", (the first being No. 21 and the last being No. 25) Hans Richter utilizes the same concept that was the focus of the first one: Cubism as motion pictures. Richter, a painter from the 20th century, was also a member of the Dada movement (aka nonsense art), and most of his pictures preceding this were painted in modern conceptual styles such as Supremism. Richter would later go on to use live action in his films; it is these earlier works (primarily this series) that he described as being intended paintings. For him, film was no different than canvas whatsoever; the same functions could apply to both, but with film, he could go a step further and move his images.

"Rhythmus 23" illustrates this, as having seen supremist and cubist paintings, I can see how this bears a resemblence to these art movements which Richter was influenced by. Like the first one in the series, it consists of a lot of squares, rectangles and lines shrinking, growing and moving. There is a lot more going on than that previous film however, which seemed to first be testing how to create such animations on film, while this one takes such animations to their highest potential. As such, a more engaging film for me, with some interesting effects and ideas being put to good use; a step up for one who would later become an even greater artist.
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