Dieter Roth
German, 1930 - 1998
Karl-Dietrich Roth was born in Hannover on April 20, 1930 to a German mother and Swiss father. Roth attended primary and higher secondary school in Germany. Afterwards, he was sent to stay with a family in Zurich in 1943, where his parents joined him three years later. During his time here, Roth etched on tin from cans, painted in oils, and wrote poetry. His passion extended to drawing, pastels, and watercolors. In 1951 he completed his training as a commercial artist, however, he was left jobless and began to freelance. In 1957 he moved to Iceland and married Sigiour Bjornsdottir. In 1964 the couple separated. They had two children, Karl, born in 1957, and Bjorn, born in 1961. Roth had his first one-man show at the Museum College of Art in Philadelphia in September 1964. He was now working with chocolate and would continue to use organic materials. He also taught at institutions in the United States, Britain, and Germany, the architecture department of Yale University, at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, at the Watfort School of Art in London and the Dusseldorf Art Academy. Roth’s work dealt with irony, variability and deconstruction, experimenting with different media and materials. Roth died in Basle in 1998.
