DIETER ROTH

ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY

To mark Dieter Roth’s eightieth birthday, the Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation in Hanover presents an extensive selection of works by this artist. The pieces have mostly been sourced from the ahlers collection, with the exception of some important loans. The exhibition includes collages, drawings, watercolours and print graphics, in addition tothe typical Dieter Roth objects. They can all be seen as never completed documents of a process which was subjected to incessant changes. Most important are the many books and book objects, which number among the conceptual points of departure for his work. 

Dieter Roth was born in Hanover on 21 April 1930, the son of a German mother and a Swiss father. Painter, illustrator, typographer, poet, publisher, sculptor, composer, professor – Dieter Roth was an artist in the broadest sense of the term, and one who was always embarking on a ‘mental journey into fictional worlds’. From 1947 until 1951, he learned graphical techniques and worked as a commercial artist. In 1951,he founded the magazine Spirale together with two friends. He would later found further magazines, including Zeitschrift für Alles (Review for Everything) in 1975 and in 1984 the specialist journal Kopics, Kallix und Island. Roth directed his first film in 1954. In 1957, his first book was published, consisting of a montage of neo-Dadaisticelements made up of words and images. In the same period, he was involved in happenings and performances within the Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Roth travelled extensively within Europe and the USA, lived in Bern, Copenhagen, New York, Philadelphia, Reykjavik, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Basel and Amsterdam, where he also taught at various different institutions alongside his artistic activity. 

Objects and assemblages formed out of organic materials (including spices, chocolate and sausage products) are another important part of his oeuvre. He uses them to highlight the themes of decay and transience. He often made use of everyday materials and objects or worked with objects made out of paper. Roth organised many exhibitions, working single-handedly or together with other artists. In the period after 1960, he worked closely with artists including Richard Hamilton, Daniel Spoerri, Stefan Wewerka and Arnulf Rainer. He left behind an extensive collection of postcards which he had altered himself and maintained intensive correspondences – the exchange of letters with Dorothy Iannone is impressively presented in the exhibition. 

Every study, every creation, every newly developed technique comes to represent Dieter Roth’s spontaneity. He gives expression to his fantasy in melancholic colours, which he accompanies with the requisite down-to-earth humour, without disturbing the sense of harmony. Building and destruction, decay and transformation, accumulation and reproduction make up the quintessence of his oeuvre. 

Dieter Roth died in Basel in 1998. His last years in particular were marked by a deep friendship with Jan Ahlers. 

The exhibition is curated by Jan Hoet. Born in Belgium in 1936, Hoet made a name for himself with the 1986 exhibition Chambres d’Amis, amongst other accomplishments. In 1992, he was the artistic director of documenta IX in Kassel. The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Gent, established by Hoet, is numbered among Europe’s most renowned museums of contemporary art. In autumn of last year, he was honoured with the Bundesverdienstkreuz for his ‘courage in bringing art closer to the public in unusual ways’.