Anderson Hall 333 S Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 United States
The Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery is pleased to present “Roth,” an homage to the first Dieter Roth exhibition in the United States 50 years ago at Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). The polymathic artist Dieter Roth (1930 – 1998) was a master of many genres and was one of the most influential models in late 20th-century art. During Roth’s stay in Philadelphia working with the master printer Eugene Feldman and especially Jim McWilliams, he completed thousands of printed, photographic and hand-drawn pages, which later became the basis of Roth’s book Snow. At the same time, his debauched antics made him the bête noire of several American cities and campuses.
Roth’s early work could be almost minimal, dealing with a few lines of text, geometric and die cut, comprising many volumes of books (both unique and published in editions), sculptural or environmental. He often layered his imagery and his materials, some of which were organic and open to abject putrefaction. Comic and sexual imagery, hand-drawn or consisting of multiple versions of throw-away printings were all part of his practice. Towards the end, he documented his studio life on video, which was shown in real time on banks of monitors.
In recognition of Roth’s local sojourn, we have (in addition to Roth) included the following sympathetic artists: Brock Enright, Alison Knowles, Kate Levant, Chris Martin, Justin Matherly, Win McCarthy, Jim McWilliams, Matt Neff, Karyn Olivier, Holt Quentel, Terry Riley, Michael E. Smith, Michael Williams and Ervin Wurm.
Roth’s works are in the collections of numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, France; Hamberger Kunsthalle, Hamberg, Germany; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany; Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany; Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland; Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; Tate Gallery, London, among others.
