Kinderbuch. (Children's Book)
Roth, Dieter
Reykjavik. Printed by Hólar Prent for forlag ed. 1957
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Dieter Roth's very scarce first artist book, the Reykjavik-published 'Kinderbuch'.
From the edition limited to c.100 copies, with this one of 75 without cut-outs.
This very scarce example is from the collection of Vilborg Dagbjartsdóttir (born 1930), an Icelandic friend of Roth and his wife at the time; Dagbjartsdóttir's first published book 'Alli Nalli og Tunglio (Alli Nalli and the Moon) of 1959, also a book for children, was designed in its entirety by Roth. In addition to a number of books for children, Dagbjartsdóttir was a founder of Rauosokkahreyfingin (Red-Stocking Feminists) and an important Modernist poet.
'Contrary to its innocent title the book follows a strictly formal idea. It mirrors the seemingly objective rules of mathematics which Roth had imbibed in the early 1950s around the Zürcher Konkreten ... a composition of squares and circles printed in red, blue and yellow ... The book's appeal is a visional rhythm, a musical element, a synaesthetic touch.' (DIrk Dobke).
'In 'children's book', created using just two shapes and the three primary colours, Roth demonstrated his interest both in the accumulation of forms and in compositional symmetry. The shapes multiply page by page until reaching a crescendo at the midpoint ... Through a complex interplay of transparency and opacity, compositions are built in accumulated layers ... '. (MoMA catalogue).
[Dobke A1; Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective 2].
From the edition limited to c.100 copies, with this one of 75 without cut-outs.
This very scarce example is from the collection of Vilborg Dagbjartsdóttir (born 1930), an Icelandic friend of Roth and his wife at the time; Dagbjartsdóttir's first published book 'Alli Nalli og Tunglio (Alli Nalli and the Moon) of 1959, also a book for children, was designed in its entirety by Roth. In addition to a number of books for children, Dagbjartsdóttir was a founder of Rauosokkahreyfingin (Red-Stocking Feminists) and an important Modernist poet.
'Contrary to its innocent title the book follows a strictly formal idea. It mirrors the seemingly objective rules of mathematics which Roth had imbibed in the early 1950s around the Zürcher Konkreten ... a composition of squares and circles printed in red, blue and yellow ... The book's appeal is a visional rhythm, a musical element, a synaesthetic touch.' (DIrk Dobke).
'In 'children's book', created using just two shapes and the three primary colours, Roth demonstrated his interest both in the accumulation of forms and in compositional symmetry. The shapes multiply page by page until reaching a crescendo at the midpoint ... Through a complex interplay of transparency and opacity, compositions are built in accumulated layers ... '. (MoMA catalogue).
[Dobke A1; Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective 2].
[13 unnumbered leaves including wrappers]. Square folio. (320 x 323 mm). Doubled leaves of thick paper with red, black, yellow and blue colour-printed geometric shapes in a variety of combinations recto and verso throughout. Original spiral-bound printed card wrappers.
#45939
