The Armory Show 2015

PRESS RELEASE

ARMORY HDR

The first solo exhibition of Roth's work took place in Copenhagen in 1962 at Galerie Köpke where a series of drawings, called stupidogrammes, were shown. The gallery was small and Dieter left instructions to just pin the drawings directly to the wall in a straight line, at eye level, around the three walls. None of the works were sold and Dieter told Arthur Köpke to throw them away. However, Köpke kept some for himself and sent the rest back to Dieter, who gave it to the Sohm Archive which is now in Stuttgart. Dieter later recreated this work for his Collected Works volume 9. Zucker Art Books owns twelve of these originally exhibited drawings. They are displayed in the same way they were hung in 1962 in the gallery. 

 

The end of Dieter's life was unfortunate; diagnosed with a grave heart condition, he knew he had a limited time to live. He declined potentially life-prolonging surgery and began to create works unlike anything he had done before, still life flower bouquets. These works speak directly to Dieter's mother, an amateur artist who painted still life, mostly of flowers. He used not only paint and color markers but also made print editions of the works utilizing a color copier. These works were in an edition of only four copies each. Zucker Art Books has 13 works from this series, which all came from one collection in Iceland. They have never been exhibited or offered for sale.