The "Piccadillies", as they are collectively known, comprise one of Dieter Roth’s most celebrated artistic undertakings. The series was realized first as 6 "Piccadillies", only to branch out over the following years into a vast trove of experiments and variations on the original series. 

Roth (1930-1998), a Swiss artist already well known in 1969 for his artist books and sculptures made with cheese, chocolate, and other biodegradable comestibles, started out on this particular artistic journey with a single tourist postcard of Piccadilly Circus—one of the first mass-consumed postcard subjects—that belonged to an extensive collection of Piccadilly postcards assembled by the British artist Rita Donagh. After selecting one from a range of similar but distinct views, Roth, in collaboration with his print publisher Hansjörg Mayer, made a photographic blow-up, which he then printed and laminated onto both sides of a series of boards. He then overlaid each of the resulting boards with a variety of complex silkscreened surfaces, producing a range of distortions and re-interpretations of the original image, including a number of “misprints,” many of which were developed into unique works, either as composites or as overpainted prints. 

Dieter (Diter Rot) Roth -
Curator Dan Cameron -

The exhibition is the first large-scale survey in a United States museum dedicated to the history of the experimental German artists’ group Zero (1957–66) and ZERO, an international network of artists that shared the group’s aspiration to redefine and transform art in the aftermath of World War II. The exhibition features work by the three core members of Group Zero—Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker—and by more than 30 artists from 10 countries who comprised the larger ZERO network, including Lucio Fontana, Yayoi Kusama, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Jesús Rafael Soto, Jean Tinguely, and herman de vries. These artists found common cause in the desire to use novel materials drawn from everyday life, nature, and technology and to develop innovative techniques and formats such as room-scaled installations, kinetic artworks, and live art actions. Focusing on the points of intersection, exchange, and collaboration that define the ZERO artists’ shared history, the exhibition is at once a snapshot of a specific group and a portrait of a generation. ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s–60s celebrates the pioneering nature of ZERO art and the transnational vision advanced by this network of artists during a pivotal decade.

A fully illustrated 244-page catalogue accompanies ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s–60s. Available at the museum shop and online at guggenheimstore.org and distributed in the United States through ARTBOOK | D.A.P.

[Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Günther Uecker] ZERO - Lucio Fontana - Yves Klein - Yayoi Kusama - Piero Manzoni - Almir da Silva Mavignier - Jesús Raphaël Soto - Jean Tinguely - Herman de Vries - [Armand Pierre Fernandez] Arman - [Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd] Armando - Bernard Aubertin - Agostino Bonalumi - Robert C. Breer - Pol Bury - Enrico Castellani - Gianni Colombo - [Eduarda Emilia Maino] Dadamaino - Paul de Vree - Piero Dorazio - Hermann Goepfert - Gerhard von Graevenitz - Gotthard Graubner - Jan Henderikse - Paul van Hoeydonck - Oskar Holweck - Walter LeBlanc - Adolf Luther - Christian Megert - Henk Peeters - Uli Pohl - George Rickey - Dieter (Diter Rot) Roth - Jan [Johannes Jacobus] Schoonhoven - Daniel [Daniel Isaac Feinstein] Spoerri - Jef [Josef-Bernard] Verheyen - Nanda Vigo -
Curator Valerie Hillings -