2 Schock schnelle Weichzeichnungen. 1982
2 Schock schnelle Weichzeichnungen. 1982 belongs to the group of artist’s books in which Dieter Roth treats drawing not as a finished image but as an event. The title plays with measure and speed: two ‘Schock’ suggests an old counting unit of twice sixty, while ‘Weichzeichnungen’ implies both soft drawings and softened images. In book form, the fleeting gesture is repeated, fixed, and set in motion again. Roth’s artist’s books form a self-contained universe in which handwriting, reproduction, humour, and serial labour continually unsettle one another. This Berlin Rainer Verlag copy is especially appealing as one of only 200 numbered and signed examples. The white boards intensify the book’s apparent modesty, while its restraint is precisely what makes it radical. As an object, it stands close to Roth’s later practice of drawing as daily, bodily registration.
Quantity
Roth, Dieter
2 Schock schnelle Weichzeichnungen. 1982
1983 | Berlin | Rainer Verlag
A rare artist’s book in which Roth’s speed, softness, and serial intelligence converge in book form. Its small edition, numbering, and signature make this copy especially collectible. It is a lucid example of Roth’s ability to make the plain book object radical.
2 Schock schnelle Weichzeichnungen. 1982 belongs to the group of artist’s books in which Dieter Roth treats drawing not as a finished image but as an event. The title plays with measure and speed: two ‘Schock’ suggests an old counting unit of twice sixty, while ‘Weichzeichnungen’ implies both soft drawings and softened images. In book form, the fleeting gesture is repeated, fixed, and set in motion again. Roth’s artist’s books form a self-contained universe in which handwriting, reproduction, humour, and serial labour continually unsettle one another. This Berlin Rainer Verlag copy is especially appealing as one of only 200 numbered and signed examples. The white boards intensify the book’s apparent modesty, while its restraint is precisely what makes it radical. As an object, it stands close to Roth’s later practice of drawing as daily, bodily registration.
€280
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 200 hand-numbered and signed copies; this is number 59/200, signed “Dieter Roth”.
Print Run
200
Copy Number
No. 59/200
Inscription
Signed by the Illustrator
Product DETAIL
The book consists of a sequence of rapid pencil drawings by Dieter Roth, reproduced in facsimile. It has no conventional plot, characters, or narrative development; its subject is the repeated moment of drawing itself. Each image records a brief gesture, a shift of line, pressure, and tempo, becoming legible within the series as a variation on movement. The title places the sheets under the double sign of speed and softness: spontaneity is not made heroic, but kept light, provisional, and sometimes almost casual. The structure resembles a visual diary or a set of exercises in which seeing, hand, and reproduction coincide. The book format turns the drawings into a rhythmic experience: the reader does not move toward a conclusion, but through a stream of graphic decisions. Thematically, it belongs to Roth’s persistent concerns with process, repetition, failure, humour, and the material traces of time.
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