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Dimensions: each: 220 by 40 cm. (6)

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Provenance: Art Intermedia, Cologne
Acquired from the above by the present owner in January 1971

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Notes: PROPERTY FROM THE HELGA AND WALTHER LAUFFS COLLECTION
Dieter Roth, who was born in 1930, was a highly productive and creative artist, a graphic designer, performer, publisher, poet, musician and sculptor.

Maybe the most famous works in Roth´s oeuvre are the ones containing organic material and food such as cheese or chocolate. It was in the 1960s that Dieter Roth freed himself from formal conventions and gave these materials a life in his work, leaving established categories behind and starting a new discourse on the state of being and the processes of becoming and deterioration.

Since most of the works produce an often almost unbearable malodour whilst disintegrating, the spice objects (Gewürzobjekte, Lot 208 and Lot 209) define a new group of work within his oeuvre. As Rudolf Rieser, collaborator of Roth tells: "After all the disgusting things with the mouldy food we wanted to produce something beautiful, precious. Inspired by the nice smell in a spice shop - when spices used to be sold in these big sacks - we somehow had the idea of spice objects."

Quote: Dieter Roth, Theodora Vischer, Bernadette Walter: Roth Zeit. Eine Dieter Roth Retrospektive, Basel 2003, S. 132.

All spice objects are built in a similar way. Spices such as curry, aniseed, paprika, ginger and cinnamon are kept between glass panels, framed by white wood.

Sometimes one single type of spice, sometimes layers of different spices are kept between the glass, leaving us to admire the earthly, warm colours of shades and layers.

On some of the frames metal grips have been attached (as it is to the Gewürztruhe Lot 209) to open the boxes to explore and enjoy the smell of the beautiful and highly sculptural works with all senses.