Dieter Roth: Graphic Works

Dieter Roth was the quintessential artist’s artist, highly revered by his peers. Between 1947 and 1998, Roth made 524 prints, culminating in one of the richest and most diverse printmaking oeuvres ever. Many are unique prints, created by the inventive manipulation of the various stages in the printmaking process, achieving remarkable editions in which not one print is identical.

The artist used all known—and some newly invented—printmaking techniques including woodcuts (relief printing), etching, engraving, aquatint (intaglio printing), lithography, offset (planographic printing), screenprinting (stencil printing), pressings (objects flattened by vertically exerted pressure), and squashings (objects flattened by horizontally exerted pressure). Often various methods were combined.

Roth’s creativity and ingenuity pushed printmaking beyond all known borders. All his prints are reproduced here in full color, and, in many cases, several examples of the unique prints are shown.

A text by the curator Dirk Dobke and a text based on an interview with Richard Hamilton accompany the book.