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 -