Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Dieter Roth
1969
Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
In the mid-1960s, Dieter Roth began producing multiples in a wide variety of forms, some incorporating edible materials such as sugar, cheese, bananas, spices, and chocolate. In Flattened Poets Bust, the artist depicts himself as ...
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Flache Dichterbüste [Flattened Poets Bust]
Dieter Roth
1969
Cologne
Chocolate relief wrapped in box
30 × 42 × 4 cm
Edition of 40; signed and numbered 7/40

In the mid-1960s, Dieter Roth began producing multiples in a wide variety of forms, some incorporating edible materials such as sugar, cheese, bananas, spices, and chocolate. In Flattened Poets Bust, the artist depicts himself as literally and metaphorically flattened, adding a disturbing element to the chocolate relief: a crow pecking out his eye. The image subtly recalls Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, whose haunting meditation on grief and irrevocable loss is encapsulated in the refrain "Nevermore." Here, the bird's macabre presence evokes themes of judgment and self-annihilation, while simultaneously introducing Roth's characteristic dark humour: the artist's portrait as a poet is compressed into a box and transformed into an object resembling a chocolate bar. Alongside his “Portrait of the Artist as Bird Food Bust” (1968) and “Lion-Self” (1969), this work presents a punchy and self-conscious critique within the context of the Pop art movement: art becomes edible, while the artist himself is recast, literally, as a consumable commodity.

Cologne
Chocolate relief wrapped in box
30 × 42 × 4 cm
Edition of 40; signed and numbered 7/40

In the mid-1960s, Dieter Roth began producing multiples in a wide variety of forms, some incorporating edible materials such as sugar, cheese, bananas, spices, and chocolate. In Flattened Poets Bust, the artist depicts himself as literally and metaphorically flattened, adding a disturbing element to the chocolate relief: a crow pecking out his eye. The image subtly recalls Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, whose haunting meditation on grief and irrevocable loss is encapsulated in the refrain "Nevermore." Here, the bird's macabre presence evokes themes of judgment and self-annihilation, while simultaneously introducing Roth's characteristic dark humour: the artist's portrait as a poet is compressed into a box and transformed into an object resembling a chocolate bar. Alongside his “Portrait of the Artist as Bird Food Bust” (1968) and “Lion-Self” (1969), this work presents a punchy and self-conscious critique within the context of the Pop art movement: art becomes edible, while the artist himself is recast, literally, as a consumable commodity.

DESCRIPTION

In the mid-1960s, Dieter Roth began producing multiples in a wide variety of forms, some incorporating edible materials such as sugar, cheese, bananas, spices, and chocolate. In Flattened Poets Bust, the artist depicts himself as literally and metaphorically flattened, adding a disturbing element to the chocolate relief: a crow pecking out his eye. The image subtly recalls Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, whose haunting meditation on grief and irrevocable loss is encapsulated in the refrain "Nevermore." Here, the bird's macabre presence evokes themes of judgment and self-annihilation, while simultaneously introducing Roth's characteristic dark humour: the artist's portrait as a poet is compressed into a box and transformed into an object resembling a chocolate bar. Alongside his “Portrait of the Artist as Bird Food Bust” (1968) and “Lion-Self” (1969), this work presents a punchy and self-conscious critique within the context of the Pop art movement: art becomes edible, while the artist himself is recast, literally, as a consumable commodity.

Cologne
Chocolate relief wrapped in box
30 × 42 × 4 cm
Edition of 40; signed and numbered 7/40

In the mid-1960s, Dieter Roth began producing multiples in a wide variety of forms, some incorporating edible materials such as sugar, cheese, bananas, spices, and chocolate. In Flattened Poets Bust, the artist depicts himself as literally and metaphorically flattened, adding a disturbing element to the chocolate relief: a crow pecking out his eye. The image subtly recalls Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, whose haunting meditation on grief and irrevocable loss is encapsulated in the refrain "Nevermore." Here, the bird's macabre presence evokes themes of judgment and self-annihilation, while simultaneously introducing Roth's characteristic dark humour: the artist's portrait as a poet is compressed into a box and transformed into an object resembling a chocolate bar. Alongside his “Portrait of the Artist as Bird Food Bust” (1968) and “Lion-Self” (1969), this work presents a punchy and self-conscious critique within the context of the Pop art movement: art becomes edible, while the artist himself is recast, literally, as a consumable commodity.

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In the mid-1960s, Dieter Roth began producing multiples in a wide variety of forms, some incorporating edible materials such as sugar, cheese, bananas, spices, and chocolate. In Flattened Poets Bust, the artist depicts himself as literally and metaphorically flattened, adding a disturbing element to the chocolate relief: a crow pecking out his eye. The image subtly recalls Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, whose haunting meditation on grief and irrevocable loss is encapsulated in the refrain "Nevermore." Here, the bird's macabre presence evokes themes of judgment and self-annihilation, while simultaneously introducing Roth's characteristic dark humour: the artist's portrait as a poet is compressed into a box and transformed into an object resembling a chocolate bar. Alongside his “Portrait of the Artist as Bird Food Bust” (1968) and “Lion-Self” (1969), this work presents a punchy and self-conscious critique within the context of the Pop art movement: art becomes edible, while the artist himself is recast, literally, as a consumable commodity.

MORE BOOKS