Dieter Roth | MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona

artist

Dieter Roth

birth

Hannover, Germany, 1930

death

Basilea, Switzerland, 1998

last update

23-04-2025

The painter, draughtsman, sculptor, action artist, poet and editor Dieter Roth was born in Hanover in 1930 to a German mother and a Swiss father. Due to the war, he and his brother were taken to Zurich in 1943, and Roth subsequently spent his life living between Germany, Switzerland and Iceland. Roth entered the art world through the field of industrial design, and proceeded to expand its scope until it encompassed almost all areas of artistic endeavour. The defining characteristic of this artist – whose work can be said to fit within the Neo-Dada movement – is the tendency to dissolve the distinction between art and life, an attitude that he shared with artists' groups like Fluxus and the new realists. In 1953, Roth co-founded the magazine Spirale in collaboration with Eugen Gomringer and Marcel Wyss. In 1954 he created his first artist's book, a genre in which he brought together his best-known work. Unlike the American artist Edward Ruscha, Roth refused to use commercial technology to mass produce books, because he considered each page to be a unique work. His first baked bread sculptures date from 1954, and from that time forth his interest in organic transformation became part of his strategy to subvert the mechanisms of the commercialisation of art. In the late fifties, Roth worked in New York, where he organised happenings and produced kinetic works and rubber stamps that included texts and still photographs. In the seventies, he collaborated with artists such as Arnulf Rainer (1972–1979) and Richard Hamilton (1975–1977), with whom he often spent time in Cadaqués. Roth, who used variations of his name – Dieter Roth, dieter roth, DITERROT, diter rot or Dietrich Roth, depending on the work and the context – was always a rebel who sought new media and defended constant change and mutation. He died in Basel in 1998. His work can be found in numerous collections including those of major museums such as the Tate Gallery in London, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

The texts of the MACBA web draw on previous documentation. Please let us know if you find any errors.

works

34 results

see all

Ektachrome

s.d.

Richard Hamilton

see detail

see detail

Kleine Wolke

1971

Dieter Roth

see detail

[1923_015_pub / Imatge] Reykjavic Slides

see detail

Reykjavík Slides

1973-1975/1990-1993

Dieter Roth

[3534_001_pub_l / Imatge] 3534_001_pub_l.jpg

see detail

Certificate. About "Collaborations"

1976

Richard Hamilton

[3277_001_pub_l / Imatge] 3277_001_pub_l.jpg

see detail

Escrit original de la relació d'exposicions relaitzades sota el nom de "Collaborations"

1976

Dieter Roth

see detail

[Disseny per a la coberta de "Canciones de Cadaqués"]

1976

Dieter Roth

[3520_001_pub_l / Imatge] 3520_001_pub_l.jpg

see detail

Rampant Red Hampton. The Rotham Arms

1976

Richard Hamilton

see detail

Canciones de Cadaqués

1976

Richard Hamilton

[3329_003_rgb / Imatge] R.3329 - Sausage Wearer's Arms, with Rampant Sausages Bearing + Atypical Certificate with Buster Jaxon Indicating a Typicall Sausage [pintura], Richard Hamilton, Dieter Roth, 1976

see detail

Sausage Wearer's Arms, with Rampant Sausages Bearing + Atypical Certificate with Buster Jaxon Indicating a Typicall Sausage

1976

Richard Hamilton

[Tríptic "Exhibition Collaborations" + dibuix Dieter Roth]

setembre 1976

Dieter Roth

see detail

Three Sausage Bearing Busts + Sausages dell'Arte

1976

Richard Hamilton

see detail

Sancho Panza in Deserted Landscape + Typical Certificate

see detail

see detail

Banner with a Strange Device: "Received Degnarts" + Seascape Supported

1976

Richard Hamilton

see detail

Self-supporting Twinned Sausage, Assis + Self Supporting Hindless and/or Headless Hunds

1976

Richard Hamilton

[Cartell d'INTERFACE's II a la Galeria Maeght]

1977

Richard Hamilton

see detail

[3178_001_pub_l / Imatge] 3178_001_pub_l.jpg

see detail

Collaborations of Ch. Rotham

1977

Richard Hamilton

[3181_001_rgb_l / Imatge] 3181_001_rgb_l.jpg

see detail

[Cartell d'INTERFACE's III a la Galeria Eude de Barcelona]

1977

Richard Hamilton

[3333_001_rgb_l / Imatge] 3333_001_rgb_l.jpg

see detail

[Cartells de les exposicions en col·laboració de Richard Hamilton i Dieter Roth]

1977

Richard Hamilton

[3332_001_rgb_l / Imatge] 3332_001_rgb_l.jpg

see detail

Suite Two. The Rotham Certificates

1977

Richard Hamilton

[Cartell d'INTERFACE's I a la Galeria Eude]

1977

Richard Hamilton

see detail

[3521_003_pub_l / Imatge] 3521_003_pub_l.jpg

see detail

INTERFACEs, Artists Statements, September 1997 - February 1978

1977 - 1978

Richard Hamilton

"Collaborations" Readings

1977

Richard Hamilton

see detail

see detail

see detail

Tibidabo

1978

Dieter Roth

see detail

[3175_001_cmyk_l / Imatge] 3175_001_cmyk_l.jpg

see detail

150 Speedy Drawings nos. 1501-1650, 2-handed

1978

Dieter Roth

[3278_001_pub_l / Imatge] 3278_001_pub_l.jpg

see detail

Correspondencen (per a Margarita Bombelli, per a Franco Bombelli... a la Galeria Cadaqués)

1978

Dieter Roth

see detail

Lorelei - Langstreckensonate

see detail

see detail

[Conjunt d'obres de diversos artistes dedicades a Lanfranco Bombelli]

1973-1997

Richard Hamilton

documents

76 results