Dieter Roth

Dieter Roth (April 1930 – June 1998)

Dieter Roth (also known as ‘Dieter Rot’ and ‘Diter Rot’) was a German-Swiss conceptual artist. He worked with a range of techniques with a focus upon printmaking (silkscreens and lithographs) and publishing. Roth is also known for his works made from ‘found materials’ including rotting foods and materials:

Karnickelköttelkarnickel (1972) (‘Rabbit Droppings Rabbit’)
Verschimmelte Unikate

After experiencing Paul Klee’s work for the first time – “a shock that [was to] grow into an obsession” – Roth moved away from commercial art in which he was completing an apprenticeship in.

In 1954, Roth met Daniel Spoerri, which was a friendship that Roth described as “one of the most wonderful things I ever experienced”. Spoerri’s publishing house, Editions MAT, that he later founded went on to print some of Roth’s early works. Roth contributed to Spoerri’s ‘An Anecdoted Topography of Chance’, a collaborative work of cumulative anecdotes by Spoerri, Robert Filliou and Emmett Williams, and published by Something Else Press.

However, despite his close personal and professional relationships with Fluxus artists, Roth was also critical of the movement:

“It was the club of the untalented who made a verbal virtue of their lack of talent so that nobody could say they had no talent. The modesty that they ascribed to themselves was actually a good insight in that sense. Because they had to be modest because they were so incapable.”

– Dieter Roth

Links:

Websites:

Dieter Roth Museum, Hamburg: https://www.dieterrothmuseum.org/en/

Dieter Roth Academy website: http://www.dieter-roth-academy.de/index.html

Dieter Roth Academy links: http://www.dieter-roth-academy.de/Links/links.html 

Biographies:

Biography, Artnet: http://www.artnet.com/artists/dieter-roth/

Biography, Artsy: https://www.artsy.net/artist/dieter-roth

Biography (German): https://postwar.hausderkunst.de/artworks-artists/artists/dieter-roth

Biography: https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogues/artist-index/detail/roth-dieter.html

Biography, Essl Museum (German): http://sammlung-essl.at/jart/prj3/essl/main.jart?content-id=1363947043047&rel=de&article_id=1364874376866&reserve-mode=active

Biography (German): http://www.dieter–roth.de/ 

Biography (German): https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz108385.html

Biography: https://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=3150

Biography, Hauser & Wirth: https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2823-dieter-roth

Works:

Visual exhibits: https://www.wikiart.org/en/dieter-roth/all-works#!#filterName:all-paintings-chronologically,resultType:masonry

The international auction house for the purchase and sale of Dieter with visual exhibits: https://kettererkunst.de/bio/dieter-roth-1930.php

Visual exhibits: https://www.van-ham.com/de/kuenstler/dieter-roth.html

Visual exhibits, Tate Britain: https://www.tate.org.uk/search?aid=1870&type=artwork

Self Portrait as a Lion; Hunting Ducks; Rabbit dung: https://arpmuseum.org/en/museum/museum/collections/the-contemporary-collection/dieter-roth.html

The Course of the World (‘Der Lauf der Welt’): https://fineartmultiple.de/dieter-roth-der-lauf-der-welt/

(Trauriges) Taschenzimmer (1969): https://www.galerie-thomas.de/de/werke/dieter-roth-trauriges-taschenzimmer

Self-portrait as a Lion (1969) & commentary (German): https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/selbstbildnis-als-loewe-1969

Articles:

Dieter Roth: A Look at an Enigmatic Artist: https://www.kunstplaza.de/kuenstler/ein-blick-auf/dieter-roth-ein-blick-auf-einen-raetselhaften-kuenstler-star/

Spiegel article on Roth: https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/dieter-roth-der-kuenstler-und-sein-schimmelmuseum-a-1029091.html

Dieter Roth and the artist book (German): https://ahlers-proarte.com/de/ausstellungen/dieter-roth-26

‘Art That Rots’ (German): https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/kunst-die-fault

‘Art Is What You Do’ (German): https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.dieter-roth-im-kunstmuseum-kunst-ist-was-man-macht.c994c490-6228-44ee-bf13-6681fb8cd287.html

‘Dieter Roth: From Graphic Artist to Art Provocateur’: https://www.kultur-port.de/index.php/blog/bildende-kunst/4446-dieter-roth-vom-grafiker-zum-kunstprovokateur.html

Video resources:

Opening night of Dieter Roth: Selves (Retrospective) at Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau / Switzerland, August 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIfO5UYVq0k&ab_channel=VernissageTV

Introduction to Dieter Roth, MoMA: https://www.moma.org/artists/5042

Exhibitions:

‘Dieter Roth: Nice Shit. Amateur Masterpieces’ exhibition, Dortmund August 2016: https://www.dortmunder-u.de/veranstaltung/dieter-roth-schoene-scheisse-dilettantische-meisterwerke

Roth’s collaboration with his son Björn Roth: https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/4501-dieter-roth-bjorn-roth

Exhibitions, films and literature and collections: https://www.artedio.de/kuenstler/dieter-roth#filme 

Video on the exhibition ‘The Book’s Undoing: Dieter Roth’s Artist’s Books’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XVe5hd81IU&ab_channel=CUBoulderLibraries

Further resources:

‘Dieter Roth’ film, directed by Edith Jud, 118 min, 2003