Museum Exhibition Catalogues, Monographs, Artist's Projects, Curatorial Writings and Essays
"I'm not going to let anybody tell me not to be unmoral. Why shouldn't we be pigs? Why shouldn't I experience the fall? Why shouldn't I be allowed to express it, why shouldn't I be silly? It's all in the context of so-called art so it doesn't hurt anybody." Dieter Roth, quoted by essayist Theodora Vischer in Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Dieter Roth was born to a Swiss father and German mother in Hannover, Germany, in 1930, and was later sent out of Nazi Germany to live in Switzerland with foster parents. He received his training in graphic design in Bern, where he also became interested in avant-garde design and poetry. A despiser of routines, he moved often, living in places as remote from one another as Reykjavik, London, Basel, Hamburg and Providence, Rhode Island; in each of these places he created a new identity and used a variation of his birth name, Karl Dieter Roth, such as Dieter Roth, Diter Rot and Dieterrot. He died in 1998.
Published by Schaulager, Laurenz Foundation. Foreword by Maja Oeri. Text by Marcus Broecker, Andreas Blättler, Tom Bisig and Lea Brun, Isabel Friedli.
Since 1980, a small room in Basel has housed one of the most important works by Dieter Roth (1930–98): the installation Selbstturm; Löwenturm (1969/70–98). The installation consists of two towers—one made of chocolate busts, the other of sugar cast figures stacked on glass plates—reaching up toward the ceiling. This imposing yet fragile artwork was created during the period in which Roth incorporated biodegradable foodstuffs into his large-scale installations and sculptures, and was conceived as a work in progress. Roth left behind a veritable trove of visual documentation: more than 800 photographs and Polaroids, as well as over 120 hours of video recordings of the installation across the decades and its two studio locations. This large-format catalog/artist's book, measuring 16.75 inches in height, presents the whole selection of these images in a concept curated by artist Peter Fischli, along with new essays.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Beat Keusch, Erika Streit. Text by Dieter Roth, Björn Roth, Beat Keusch.
This charming volume offers an intimate view of the life, work and friendships of the great Swiss German artist, writer and all-round polymath of postwar art, Dieter Roth (1930–98). With a foreword by the artist’s son, Björn Roth, it features numerous previously unpublished photographs and documents from the artist’s long friendship with the graphic designer Beat Keusch and the painter Erika Streit, as well as reproductions of works from throughout his career. Across four chapters, the book introduces us to Roth’s most important works and his favorite places, from the Schimmelmuseum in Hamburg, the Roth-Raum in Basel and the Basel restaurant Chez Donati, to Roth’s life in Iceland.
Dieter Roth: Time Passes, So Does Life, It Seems provides a previously unseen portrait of the artist through his works and friendships.
Featuring 31,035 slides shown simultaneously on multiple projectors, Dieter Roth’s (1930–98) Reykjavík Slides was inspired by the distinctive character of Icelandic architecture and documents every building in the capital. Created with the assistance of Pál Magnússon and the artist’s two sons, Björn and Karl, the work is a testament to the singularity of Reykjavík, which Roth called home from 1957 until his death.
Published by Edizioni Periferia. Preface by Matthias Haldemann, Udo Kittelmann. Text by Matthias Haldemann, et al.
This volume discusses the music-related works and collaborative projects of Dieter Roth in Concrete poetry, the Vienna Group, Fluxus and artists' music. It includes a DVD with an excerpt from the video recording of the Abschöpfsymphonie of 1979.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.25 x 9.25 in. / 376 pgs / 140 color / 100 bw / DVD.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 9/29/2015 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2015 p. 169
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783906016368FLAT40 List Price: $68.00 CAD $90.00
Published by Edizioni Periferia. Text by Guy Schraenen, et al.
Alongside the sculptural works and artist's books for which he is famed today, Dieter Roth (1930-98) was an active musician and music publisher, having played in numerous ensembles and recorded both in public and private spaces. This catalogue raisonné includes Roth's complete musical oeuvre.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.25 x 9.25 in. / 224 pgs / 200 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 9/29/2015 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2015 p. 169
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783906016344FLAT40 List Price: $68.00 CAD $90.00
Published by Edizioni Periferia. Preface by Gianni Paravicini. Text by Peter Kraut, William Furlong.
In 1981, in Iceland, Dieter Roth played for an hour 74 times on his accordion, recording the improvisation on cassette each time. Harmonica Curse compiles the resulting 74 cassettes with photographs of Roth's environment and diary entries for the first time in this amazing archival publication.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.25 x 9.25 in. / 312 pgs / 400 color / 92 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 9/29/2015 Active
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2015 p. 169
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783906016337FLAT40 List Price: $72.00 CAD $95.00
AVAILABILITY Out of stock
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Published by Walther König, Köln. Text by Sven Beckstette, Julia Gelshorn, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Stefan Ripplinger.
Although he is regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century for his artists' books, prints and sculptures often made with found materials, Dieter Roth (1930–1998) always thought of himself mainly as a writer, viewing his artistic work as a way to earn money for his writing. The use of language accordingly forms a leitmotif throughout Roth's entire oeuvre. Drawing on significant works from various phases of Roth's career, Dieter Roth: Balle Balle Knalle explores an essential connective thread in Roth's varied body of work, showing how text and image were intimately connected for the artist and how his literary and artistic endeavors cross-pollinated each other. This volume, published to accompany an exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, includes new texts by Sven Beckstette, Julia Gelshorn, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer and Stefan Ripplinger.
Published by Kerber. Edited by Thomas Levy. Text by Daniel Spoerri.
This slim, elegant volume presents a concise selection of works by Dieter Roth (1930–1998)--who often spelled his name as Diter Rot--from 1965 to 1990. A genuinely experimental artist, Roth constantly embraced new forms and devised new ways of working, and this book reflects his creative openness and appetite for play. Its sampling of works ranges from the rubber-stamp works of the mid-1960s and the infamous chocolate sculptures of the late 1960s to the loose, expressionistic drawings of the 70s and 80s. Also included is a warm, informal essay by Daniel Spoerri, reprinted from a 1966 Roth exhibition catalogue, and the transcription of a 1970 discussion of one of Roth’s works between Spoerri and a school class in Düsseldorf.
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited and with text by Sarah Suzuki. Text by Brenna Campbell, Scott Gerson, Lynda Zycherman.
Dieter Roth’s wildly inventive artistic practice encompassed everything from painting and sculpture to film and video, but it is arguably through his editioned works--books, prints and multiples--that he made his most important and radical contributions. These experiments include literature sausages filled with ground-up books, newspapers or magazines in place of meat; the use of organic materials like pudding or fruit juice in lieu of printing inks; multiples of plastic toys mired in chocolate; and a dazzling array of variations on printed postcards. Taken together, these works offer an utterly radicalized view of mediums that are historically considered staid and traditional, while giving insight into one of the artistic titans of the twentieth century. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, and focusing on the prolific period between 1960 and 1972, this volume highlights examples of Roth’s most exciting and innovative books and graphics. An essay by curator Sarah Suzuki uses an extended investigation of “Snow” (1964–1969), a complex book-sculpture, as a touchstone from which to further investigate Roth’s use of language, iconography, technical innovations and relationships to other artists. A conservation essay offers two case studies that explore preservation issues and address larger concerns about the challenges of conserving contemporary art and organic materials.
Published by Edizioni Periferia. Edited by Flurina and Gianni Paravicini. Text by Stefan Ripplinger, Barbara Wien.
One of Dieter Roth's major literary projects, Tears in Lucerne complements the volume Advertisements 1971-1972 as a venture in "newspaper art." An essay by Stefan Ripplinger places the project within Roth's œuvre, and an interview by Barbara Wien with the collector and gallery owner Erica Ebinger provides insight into her close friendship with Roth.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 5.5 x 8 in. / 128 pgs / illustrated throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/30/2011 Active
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2011 p. 136
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783907474839TRADE List Price: $29.00 CAD $39.50
AVAILABILITY Out of stock
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Actor and producer Martin Engler came across Dieter Roth's texts in the latter's Basel studio and has been transforming them into an audio series ever since. This audio CD includes two exclusive recordings: Engler's rendering of Roth's small ads in the Anzeiger Stadt Luzern and Tears & Stones, recorded in Iceland in June 2010 with the choir of the Dieter Roth Akademie.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT CD-Audio, 5.5 x 5.5 in.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/30/2011 Active
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2011 p. 136
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783907474846TRADE List Price: $25.00 CAD $34.50
AVAILABILITY Out of stock
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Beat Keusch, Jan Voss. Text by Ina Conzen, Ruth Diehl.
Art polymath extraordinaire, Dieter Roth (1930-1998) maintained throughout his career an output so prodigious and various that art historians and fans are still struggling to keep up. Bringing innovations to media such as installation, sculpture, artist's books, jewelry and writing, Roth also traveled and collaborated extensively, becoming one of the postwar art scene's most visible personalities. Roth kept a close circle of artist friends with whom he collaborated, and to whom he made regular gifts of works that he named “Souvenirs.” These friends included Richard Hamilton, Dorothy Iannone, Hansjörg Mayer, Martin Suter and Jan Voss, and the gifts included works of mail art, which Roth would gleefully subject to the vicissitudes of the postal system (“Has it arrived yet?” Voss recalls Roth asking him, of one such gift; “Has it already been nicely destroyed?” ). Dieter Roth: Souvenirs is the first presentation of these works.
Published by Edizioni Periferia. Text by Jean-Christophe Ammann.
In 1958, on a visit to Iceland, Dieter Roth met the Swiss goldsmith Hans Langenbacher, and the two soon agreed to collaborate. Roth came up with the brilliant idea of devising rings with exchangeable parts--a variety of brightly-colored corkscrew-like attachments to the ring's main body--which Roth then housed in containers such as old pipes or wooden boxes. This gem of a volume reproduces Roth's rings alongside sketches, photos and a lengthy interview with Langenbacher; it is an intimate and inspiring addition to the Roth corpus.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 5.5 x 8 in. / 144 pgs / 44 color / 20 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/31/2010 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2010 p. 126
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783907474785TRADE List Price: $22.00 CAD $30.50
Published by Edizioni Periferia. Text by Dieter Roth, Barbara Wien.
During the 1970s, Dieter Roth published a series of ads twice-weekly in a Swiss newspaper called the Luzerner Stadtanzeiger-ads which consisted of such aphorisms as "A good beginning is an evil end," "A tear is as evil as a good word" and "Two tears are better than five stones." This is the first complete publication of Roth's ads, previously only published as artist's books.
PUBLISHER Edizioni Periferia
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 4.5 x 8 in. / 280 pgs / illustrated throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/31/2010 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2010 p. 126
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783907474778TRADE List Price: $19.00 CAD $26.50
Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Eva Presenhuber. Text by Veit Loers.
Sculptor, poet, pioneer of artist's books, performer, publisher and musician--Dieter Roth (1930-1998) has long been beloved as an artist's artist. Constantly trying to undo his art education, he would set up systems that discouraged the conventional and the consistent: he drew with both hands at once, preserved the discarded and reveled in the transitory. Grease stains, mold formations, insect borings and rotting foodstuffs were just some of the materials used, both out of a fascination with their painterly, textural aspects and for their innate ability to make time visible and play to chance. This oversized, faux-leather-bound book collects some 260 never-before-published drawings from the famous Copy Books group, heretofore hidden away in the late artist’s archive. Organized in series, these works span from 1977 to 1998.
Published by Kerber. Text by Karin Schick, Stephan Kunz, Ingrid Wiener.
Between 1974 and 1998, the legendarily prolific, contrarian and super-experimental printmaker and mixed-media artist Dieter Roth worked with Austrian artist Ingrid Wiener (and initially also Valie Export) to produce five woven wall tapestries-presented here together for the first time, alongside 25 years worth of drawings, photographs, letters and "flat trash" like receipts and packing material. The tapestries can be interpreted in many ways. Whether seen through the lens of concept and implementation or idea and interpretation, they portray private lives and everyday objects while also making communication concrete. They supply narratives "woven" in time. They are witnesses to an artistic process. And, of course, they are symbols of an especially powerful joint creativity.
Published by Holzwarth Publications. Essays by Dietmar Elger, Oliver Koerner von Gustorf and Bernadette Walter. Interview by Dirk Dobke with Dorothy Iannone.
ìDeep in the heart of my loneliness, I think of the art of my lioness.î German Fluxus artist Dieter Rothís enigmatic (and sometimes singsong) mail art for his lover, the artist Dorothy Iannone, was matched only by her responses and the sexually loaded non-mailable art she made featuring the two of them. Roth and Iannone met in 1967, broke up in 1974, and remained friends and lively correspondents until Rothís death. He painted over and dimmed the subjects of postcard photos to make himself the central figure; she needed no prompting to cast him in a starring role in her autobiographically based oeuvre. From ìmy dear old baby, will you please bring this check to the bank so we have some money when I come back,î to ìremember me?î they were a fascinating couple; now readers can encounter that passion themselves.
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Essays by Dirk Dobke, Theodora Vischer and Bernadette Walter.
Sculptor, poet, diarist, graphic designer, pioneer artist's book maker, performer, publisher, musician, and, most of all, provocateur, Dieter Roth has long been beloved as an artist's artist. Known for his mistrust of all art institutions and commercial galleries--he once referred to museums as funeral homes--he was also known for his generosity to friends, his collaborative spirit, and for including his family in his art making. Much to the frustration of any gallery that tried to exhibit his work (supposedly none more than once), Roth thumbed his nose at those who valued high purpose and permanence in art. Constantly trying to undo his art education, he would set up systems that discouraged the conventional and the consistent: he drew with both hands at once, preserved the discarded, and reveled in the transitory. Grease stains, mold formations, insect borings, and rotting foodstuffs were just some of the materials used, both out of a fascination with their painterly, textural aspects and for their innate ability to make time visible and play to chance. “More is better,” he once said, and more there always was. Roth never stopped working, and he believed that everything could be art, from his sketch pad to the table he sat at, the telephone he talked on, or his friend's kitchen (the kitchen was later sold to a museum). Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective is published to mark the first major survey exhibition of the artist's work since his death in 1998. Five decades of drawings, graphics, books, paintings, objects, installations, films and video works are represented. The publication offers a window into Roth's creative world, reflecting him and his era. The exhibition is organized by the Schaulager with The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Essays by Frank Kicherer and Bjàrn Roth.
Chosen from the overflowing universe of materials that constituted his Stuttgart period, Dieter Roth's Ein gerissener Hase (A Slain Rabbit) and Bar Nr. 0 represent two stations in a life that was deeply intertwined with and inseparable from art. The former is a 25-part serigraph series printed with Frank Kicherer in 1990; the latter a complex work extended and restored months before the artist's death in 1998.
Dieter Roth: Time Passes, So Does Life, It Seems
Dieter Roth: Reykjavík Slides (31,035)
Dieter Roth: And Away with the Minutes
Dieter Roth: Discography
Dieter Roth: Harmonica Curse
Dieter Roth: Balle Balle Knalle
Diter Rot or Dieter Roth
Wait, Later This Will Be Nothing: Editions by Dieter Roth
Dieter Roth: Tears in Lucerne
Dieter Roth: Das Traenenmeer
Dieter Roth: Souvenirs
Dieter Roth: The Rings of Dieter Roth
Dieter Roth: Advertisements 1971-1972
Dieter Roth: Drawings/Zeichnungen
The Tapestries of Dieter Roth & Ingrid Wiener
Dieter Roth & Dorothy Iannone
Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective
Dieter Roth: Here And There
