DIETER ROTH AND ALRZNULF
RAINER
COLLABORATUONS
Hauser & Wirth
196A Piccadilly -
London
13/3/2014 - 3/5/2014
Hauser & Wirth presents an exhibition
exploring the decade-long collaboration between Dieter Roth (1930 – 1998) and
Arnulf Rainer (b. 1929). From 1972, Roth and Rainer worked together
intermittently, producing pieces in tandem or exchanging works in progress which
were then completed independently.
Roth and Rainer worked across media,
producing drawings, collages, prints, films, live performances, sound works,
over-worked photographs and poster designs. This exhibition focuses on a large
group of works on paper, unveiling Dieter Roth’s share of the collaboration
which has never been previously exhibited. A selection of the artists’ major
film works will also be on view. The exhibition is curated by Björn Roth, son
and longstanding collaborator of Dieter Roth.
The group of almost 80 works
on paper reveals an artistic dialogue full of creative tension. As opposed to
the harmonious nature characteristic of artistic collaboration, these works
depict two egos battling for ultimate victory within the creative process. Their
intellectual rivalry is evident in the voracious spirit that emanates from the
resulting works.
Roth and Rainer were key figures in European avant-garde
movements of the 1960s. When the pair met and began collaborating, Rainer was
already established in the Austrian cultural scene and was linked to the artists
who founded Galerie Grünangergasse. Roth was a frequent visitor to Vienna and
was quickly accepted into the group. Creating work in the wake of Fluxus and
Viennese Actionism, the collaborative projects of Roth and Rainer are centred
around process, bodily action and an irreverence towards the artistic
establishment.
A unique imperative within Roth and Rainer’s collaboration
was that the work should be produced in complete freedom, with an absence of
self-censorship and no social restrictions in place. One would pose a creative
challenge to the other, thus setting off a highly energetic back-and-forth which
caused absurd and increasingly incendiary reactions. Working without
inhibitions, the artists were able to push past their individual boundaries and
unleash a joint creative potential; the resulting works are impulsive, comical
and alive with intensity. This creative principle is particularly evident in
their film works, which present improvised exchanges amounting to an
unrestrained portrayal of ego: Roth and Rainer perform a slapstick duel in
‘Duell im Schloss’ (Duel in the Castle) (1976), then, in Beckettian style, they
endlessly prepare to act out a stunt involving a gymnast’s bar. The works on
paper display a similar childlike playfulness; crude faces, animal ears,
bottlecap spectacles and facial hair are scrawled on the surface of joint
photographic portraits of the two artists.
Drawing was central to their
project, as the immediacy of the medium lent itself to spontaneous acts of
creation and to instant results. Their ideas were often conceived and executed
on the spot and an entire series of work would usually be produced in a single
session, whether it lasted a day or a matter of weeks.
The drawing
techniques of both artists vary greatly, and in these works the graphic drawing
style of Dieter Roth combines with the heavy gestural marks of Arnulf Rainer,
whose short, dark lines refer back to his background in Abstract Expressionism.
In ‘Trennzeichnung (Misch- u. Trennkunst)’ (Split Drawing) (1975), the drawing
is literally separated into two halves, and the two artists’ input can be
directly compared as one mimics the other, tracing horizontal lines from left to
right, the left in a series thick black lines and in a lighter graphite on the
right. Sometimes, both artists would even impersonate a fictional third artistic
character in order to overcome discrepancies in their styles. The contradiction
of two opposing forces within these works is sometimes resolved in a surprising
way, for example in ‘Tripel (Misch- u. Trennkunst)’ (Triple) (1975), where
accidental shapes created by wild, scribbled abstract gestures have been
reined-in and reworked as a figure in profile using neat crayon colouring.
‘Misch- und Trennkunst’ was the title of Roth and Rainer’s first
collaborative exhibition at Galerie Grünangergasse, and it is the terminology
that the two artists themselves used to describe their practice – a process of
‘Mixed and Separate Art’.
Dieter Roth is most celebrated for his artist
books, printmaking and his body of work incorporating food. He later turned to
large-scale sculptural installations, often working in collaboration with his
son Björn Roth. Roth is also renowned for a number of other artistic
collaborations he undertook throughout his career. Recent solo exhibitions
include: ‘Processing the World’, FRAC Bretagne, Rennes cedex, France (2013);
‘Dieter Roth and Björn Roth – Islands’, Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy (2013), and
‘Wait, Later This Will All Be Nothing: Dieter Roth Editions’, MoMA Museum of
Modern Art, New York NY (2013).
Arnulf Rainer’s early work is
characterised by Surrealist influences. He showed an avid interest in the
subconscious and in exposing bourgeois repression through his practice. An
active member of the European Abstract Expressionist movement, Arnulf Rainer was
awarded the Great Austrian National Prize in 1978 and he represented Austria in
the 1980 Venice Biennale. Following the dissolution of the collaboration with
Dieter Roth, Rainer continued to explore photography as a central tool within
his practice.
