Dieter Roth
1930–1998 · Swiss-German artist known for artist's books and biodegradable works
Dieter Roth (Hannover, 1930 – Basel, 1998) was an artist of German and Swiss background, best known for his artist's books, editioned prints, sculptures, and works made from found materials, including rotting food. Although he entered art through commercial design, his practice came to cover nearly every area of creation.
The son of a German mother and a Swiss father, he moved to Zurich during the war and later to Bern, where he trained in commercial art. In 1953 he co-founded the magazine Spirale with Eugen Gomringer and Marcel Wyss. In 1957 he married an Icelandic student and moved to Reykjavik, where he published highly influential artist's books such as Bok (1958) and Literaturwurst (1961), which challenged the form of the book and the order of its pages.
From the early 1960s he incorporated foodstuffs, cheese and yoghurt into his works, which changed over time through mould and decay. After seeing Tinguely's Homage to Modern Art in Basel in 1961, he moved away from constructivism toward the Nouveaux Réalistes and the group that became Fluxus, though he kept his distance from George Maciunas. His legacy lies in blurring the line between art and life and in treating the artwork as a process that keeps changing.