concepts · updated 2026-06-30
Clark Richert
confidence: low volatility: cold verified: 2026-06-30fresh
Clark Richert (1941–2021) was a painter, pattern theorist, and educator born in Wichita, Kansas. He is most relevant to this archive as co-founder of Drop City and as the figure who introduced Buckmin
Clark Richert (1941–2021) was a painter, pattern theorist, and educator born in Wichita, Kansas. He is most relevant to this archive as co-founder of Drop City and as the figure who introduced Buckminster Fuller’s structural ideas into the commune’s building practice.
Education and credentials
- BFA, University of Kansas, 1963
- MFA, University of Colorado, 1972
- 1966: co-recipient of the Dymaxion Award from Buckminster R. Fuller (shared with Drop City)
- 1980: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
Drop City
Richert co-founded Drop City in 1965 with Gene Bernofsky, JoAnn Bernofsky, and Richard Kallweit. He brought the Fuller geodesic vocabulary to the commune’s architecture and later documented his work in the Drop City Panorama (1968, archival digital print, 72 × 28½ in.), exhibited at MCA Denver’s “West of Center” show (2011). See Drop City.
Baer cites Richert by name in Sunspots (1975): “I owe this observation to Clark Richert who has often brought up the point that the earth is flat instead of round” — suggesting an ongoing intellectual relationship after Drop City ended.
Pattern work and mathematical art
Richert’s mature practice centered on non-repeating geometric patterns, tiling theory, and higher-dimensional geometry. His permanent site-specific installation Riemannian Tangencies (2007) runs along The Lane on the exterior of MCA Denver’s David Adjaye-designed building. It uses Penrose Tiling — a non-repeating pattern interrelated by the Golden Proportion — overlaid with a green line Richert described as “a lyrical movement reflecting the unpredictability of the creative activities for which the Museum was created.”
Major exhibitions
| Year | Exhibition | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2007–2026 | Riemannian Tangencies (permanent installation) | MCA Denver |
| 2011 | West of Center | MCA Denver |
| 2019 | Clark Richert in hyperspace (retrospective) | MCA Denver |
| — | Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (Drop City work) | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis |
| — | — | Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI |
| — | — | Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA |
Collections include: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wichita Art Museum, Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver Art Museum.
Denver teaching career
Richert moved to Denver in the early 1980s and taught for approximately three decades, becoming a significant mentor in the Colorado art community.