Dieter Roth

February 17–June 24, 2013

  • Introduction
  • Selected Works
    • The Concrete
    • Mass Media Experiments
    • Reinventing Formats
    • Verbal Visual Equivalency
    • Snow
    • Containers
  • Multimedia: Staying Fresh
  • Interview with the Artist
  • Exhibition Checklist
  • Publication
  • Events
  • About the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books
  • Credits
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Root Treatment

Dieter Roth. Root Treatment (Wurzelbehandlung). 1971

Screenprint and rust on metal sheet, sheet: 25 13/16 x 36 9/16" (65.5 x 92.9 cm). Publisher and printer: Hartmut Kaminski, Düsseldorf. Edition: 50. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro Fund. Photograph: Thomas Griesel. © 2013 Estate of Dieter Roth

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This print is made on sheet metal. For each impression, Roth and Hartmut Kaminski, a Düsseldorf-based printer and the artist’s frequent collaborator, screenprinted both sides of an iron sheet. Next, Kaminski watered the plates with a garden hose to accelerate the rusting process. The work depicts a sardine can with its lid partially rolled back to reveal its contents, which appear to be carrots. The title reflects Roth’s love of wordplay and puns: in German, Wurzelbehandlung most commonly means “root canal,” and carrots are root vegetables.