With his multifaceted and interdisciplinary oeuvre Dieter Roth is considered one of the great universal artists of the 20th century. Born 1930 in Hannover, as the son of a Swiss father and German mother, he lived alternatively in Basel and Island, painted, drew, wrote, filmed, collected, and created installations of immeasurable density.

The Art Museum Graubünden is dedicating Dieter Roth an exhibition that by means of representative work groups gives a rare overview of his copious printmaking. Proceeding from his early works of concrete art and poetry, Dieter Roth managed to break free artistically in Providence USA. From now on the artist experimented with food stuffs as material, challenged all formal expectations, and thus set in motion a development, which is considered ground breaking until today. Subsequently the artist created graphic works of tremendous stylistic diversity. His print products incorporating sausage and cheese, his iconographic screen-prints according to postcards, or later his fairly painterly still lifes are evidence of his immense creative power. A key element, however, was always the topic of self-reflection, which is obvious throughout all phases; this is at times humorous, then again self-critical, or laconic. Due to his interest in language, to which he remained faithful all his life, works originated that have by no means lost their provocative content. The show, which incorporates roughly 200 graphic works and which focuses on his key works, makes a singular immersion in Roth’s experimental work conception possible. The exhibition is accompanied by a selection of his artist’s books, with which he also broke new ground.

The exhibition curated by Dr. Dirk Dobke and Dr. Ina Jessen for the Deichtorhallen Hamburg will be presented in an adapted form by the Art Museum Graubünden and brings together material and print works from all creative periods in the most comprehensive Dieter-Roth-exhibition in a good 20 years.