Artist and provocateur, Dieter Roth was one of the most influential European artists of the postwar period.  Born in Germany, Roth (1930-1998) found asylum from WWII as a youth in Switzerland.  Known for his use of unorthodox materials (rotting food, dead flies, sausage casings), Roth produced artist books, poetry, graphics, painted postcards, sculptures, videos and installations.  His changeable materials instilled his work with a deliberate sense of deterioration, decay, and even revulsion.  Roth chose to play with his own identity as well, shifting the spelling of his name between Karl-Dieterich Roth, Diter Rot, and Dieterrot.  Moving to the United States in the 1960s, Roth taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, conducting classes in which he infamously refused to tell students what to do.  Roth became loosely associated with Fluxus, an absurdist movement spanning performance, experimental noise, and visual art.  However, Roth distanced himself from some of its members—whom he called “the club of the untalented”—via his virtuosic drawing ability, sometimes creating symmetrical “speedy” drawings simultaneously with two hands.  This exhibition presents three portfolios from 1978-79 that reveal Roth’s incredible draftsmanship:  2 Times 5 TROPHIES, 2 Times 5 BATS, and 2 Times 5 DOGS. 

FEB 8    Join us for a reception to celebrate the launch of the 2018 Spring Exhibitions, LUAG Main Gallery, Zoellner Arts Center, 6-8PM.  Free and open to the public.  Refreshments.