Björn Roth the 51 Icelandic artist and son of deceased Dieter Roth, the experimental Swiss-German artist has been featured in a New York Times article written by Randy Kennedy titled ‘Time and Other Collaborators’ Kennedy states “Over the last half-century few artists have explored impermanence - in art and life - quite as thoroughly as Dieter Roth, the wildly experimental Swiss-German jack-of-all-trades who died in 1998. Many of his signature materials were things you were supposed to eat, not make art with: chocolate, cheese, a veritable salumeria of sausages.  …on a recent visit to a cavernous Chelsea gallery filled with work mostly by Dieter Roth, to find a middle-aged man who looked mostly like him - the same pillowy broad face and balding head, the same weary basilisk eyes - supervising the installation. The man was in the midst of an intense discussion with two younger men, whose faces were vaguely competing variations on his own. "They're always pushing me: 'What do you want?' " the older man said of the younger ones, as the three puzzled over how to arrange a work. "The problem is I don't know what I want." The men - Dieter's son, Björn Roth, 51; and Björn's sons, Oddur, 29, and Einar, 24 - represent the second and third generations of what might be described as a persistent Roth art organism, more like a self-replicating species than a collective. …There are countless examples of artists' children carrying on their legacies through estates and exhibitions. But Dieter Roth wanted to push past that tradition. Although he began his career at a time when late Modernism still exalted the idea of the lone genius, he believed deeply in collaboration - with other artists, even with his collectors (one, Hanns Sohm, was a dentist) and with his family. That affinity for intrinsically collaborative work is now second nature to many young artists…”  Inspired by Randy Kennedy, New York Times ow.ly/gXEqa Image source Reckfilm ow.ly/gXEbA The problem is I don’t know what I want (January 30 2013)

Björn Roth the 51 Icelandic artist and son of deceased Dieter Roth, the experimental Swiss-German artist has been featured in a New York Times article written by Randy Kennedy titled ‘Time and Other Collaborators’ Kennedy states “Over the last half-century few artists have explored impermanence – in art and life – quite as thoroughly as Dieter Roth, the wildly experimental Swiss-German jack-of-all-trades who died in 1998. Many of his signature materials were things you were supposed to eat, not make art with: chocolate, cheese, a veritable salumeria of sausages.  …on a recent visit to a cavernous Chelsea gallery filled with work mostly by Dieter Roth, to find a middle-aged man who looked mostly like him – the same pillowy broad face and balding head, the same weary basilisk eyes – supervising the installation. The man was in the midst of an intense discussion with two younger men, whose faces were vaguely competing variations on his own. “They’re always pushing me: ‘What do you want?’ ” the older man said of the younger ones, as the three puzzled over how to arrange a work. “The problem is I don’t know what I want.” The men – Dieter’s son, Björn Roth, 51; and Björn’s sons, Oddur, 29, and Einar, 24 – represent the second and third generations of what might be described as a persistent Roth art organism, more like a self-replicating species than a collective. …There are countless examples of artists’ children carrying on their legacies through estates and exhibitions. But Dieter Roth wanted to push past that tradition. Although he began his career at a time when late Modernism still exalted the idea of the lone genius, he believed deeply in collaboration – with other artists, even with his collectors (one, Hanns Sohm, was a dentist) and with his family. That affinity for intrinsically collaborative work is now second nature to many young artists…”

 

Inspired by Randy Kennedy, New York Times ow.ly/gXEqa Image source Reckfilm ow.ly/gXEbA