Dieter Roth

Dieter Roth, When G Dug into the Toys he Struck Terrible Shit  1966–9

Dieter Roth, 3 Knights  1970

Dieter Roth, 3 Cakes on Swivel Chairs  1971

Dieter Roth, Self-Portrait as Pile of Dog Dirt  1973

The variety of Roth’s self-portraits made in the 1970s is remarkable. Both of these works share a sense of spontaneous energy. At the heart of Self-Portrait as Pile of Dog Dirt, Roth pictures himself with recognisable protruding ears in the centre of a fetid vortex.

Gallery label, March 2007

Dieter Roth, Self-Portrait as a Flower Pot  1971

Dieter Roth, Small Landscape  1969

In Small Landscape 1969 two slices of cheese are pressed flat against a board support, partly covered by a rectangle of sandpaper. These elements are all sealed within a plastic pouch, displayed as a landscape-orientated framed picture. The cheese slice resembles a doubled setting sun or two mounds, with the sandpaper serving as a flat horizon. Similarly, Big Landscape 1969 (Tate T16116) features a larger slice of cheese, partly sandwiched under a rectangle of roofing felt, resembling a setting sun in a portrait-orientated picture plane. This example is number fourteen in an edition of one hundred. Another example of the same multiple is also in Tate’s collection (Tate T16117).

Dieter Roth, Trip Around the World  1969–70

Trip Around the World 1969–70 consists of two chocolate figurines, originally in the shape of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, as depicted on their tin foil wrappers. The two items have been pressed under separate pieces of corrugated cardboard and are sealed together in a plastic sleeve, which also contains loose chocolate fragments. The title may hint at the loss of innocence that comes from growing up, as the two chocolate figures depict characters associated with children’s beliefs around Christian holiday traditions. These beliefs are outgrown with age, as the weight of the world crushes juvenile fantasies like fragile, hollow sweets. This work is an unnumbered example in an edition of one hundred.

Dieter Roth, Champs Triptych (Dreiteilig)  1981

Champs Triptych (Dreiteilig) 1981 comprises three watercolours on separate sheets, mounted and framed together, each depicting a mushroom foreshortened as if seen from below or leaning on its side, with its gills visible, rendered in lilac-grey-brown tones over white backgrounds. Each drawing is titled, signed and dated by Roth and numbered from one to three.

Dieter Roth, Graphic with Cocoa  1969

Graphic with Cocoa 1969 is a screenprint in nine colours, contained within a plastic wrapper. Its surface is covered in loose fragments of chocolate and cocoa powder, which partly obscure the illustration. The design on the print itself consists of two simplified human figures, with boxy blue and red bodies and small heads, bisected by repeated motifs of layered rectangles, grids and boxes drawn in perspective. Other abstract shapes repeat diagonally across the rectangular motifs, and in the middle are two vertical diagrams containing inscriptions (including ‘to save my SANITY’). The whole composition appears to be an imperfect, hand-drawn mirror image. In the left half the inscriptions are sometimes backwards, sometimes legible left-to-right, the corresponding words written with their letters in inverted or in slightly scrambled order. Other legible inscriptions read, in German, ‘ACHTE AUF DIE ZEHEN’ (‘WATCH YOUR TOES’) and ‘ruf sie an, ihm schreibe’ (‘call her, write to him’). This is an unnumbered example from an edition of fifty.

Dieter Roth, Small Landscape  1969

In Small Landscape 1969 two slices of cheese are pressed flat against a board support, partly covered by a rectangle of sandpaper. These elements are all sealed within a plastic pouch, displayed as a landscape-orientated framed picture. The cheese slice resembles a doubled setting sun or two mounds, with the sandpaper serving as a flat horizon. Similarly, Big Landscape 1969 (Tate T16116) features a larger slice of cheese, partly sandwiched under a rectangle of roofing felt, resembling a setting sun in a portrait-orientated picture plane. This example of Small Landscape is an unknown number from an edition of one hundred. Another example of the same multiple, which is number fourteen of one hundred, is also in Tate’s collection (Tate T16118).

Dieter Roth, By the Sea from Behind  1972

Dieter Roth, Big Landscape  1969

In Big Landscape 1969 a large slice of cheese is pressed flat against a board support, partly covered by a rectangle of roofing felt. These elements are all sealed within a plastic pouch, displayed as a portrait-orientated framed picture. The cheese slice resembles a setting sun or a mound, with the roofing felt serving as a flat horizon. Similarly, the two Small Landscapes dating from 1969 that are also in Tate’s collection (Tate T16117 and T11618) each feature two smaller slices of cheese, partly sandwiched under a rectangle of sandpaper, resembling geographic features in a landscape-orientated picture plane. This version of Big Landscape is number six in an edition of twenty-five plus one artist’s proof.

Dieter Roth, Into the Sea  1970

In the Sea 1970 features a tin toy plane, painted blue, red and yellow, partly submerged in a cardboard box full of blue-tinted sugar icing. The wings bear the writing ‘ARTIST’ in the centre. The title suggests that the work represents a plane crash, with the toy fighter aircraft sinking into blue icing seawater. This work is number four in an edition of one hundred.

Dieter Roth, Spice Window  1971

Spice Window 1971 is a sculpture displaying a horizontal row of five wooden frames, each containing quantities of orange-brown spices pressed between panes of glass to form a thin, flat slab. The frames are painted white and feature metal hardware such as hinges and handles. There appear to be different spices within the frames, with some forming a distinct layer at the top. The whole cabinet is displayed as a wall-hung vitrine. Each of the frames is hinged so that they can open to reveal the other side, which is also visible through glass. The work was produced as a multiple and this is number twenty-six in an edition of thirty.