Ever since the death of Dieter Roth in 1998, the Basel studio in which the famously reclusive artist worked and died has been preserved pretty much intact, faithfully retaining the spirit and feel of its late occupant. The lair-like space is rarely open to visitors, as it remains the workplace of Björn, Roth’s son and former collaborator—but Björn decided to host a couple of open evenings for selected guests at the start of this year’s fair. Not only were visitors free to wander through the extraordinary, immersive environment, with its cubicles and cubbyholes crammed with all manner of art materials and memorabilia giving glimpses into the Great Man’s life and thoughts, but Björn also chose to emphasise the intimate family feel by lining the walls with rarely seen works of art from the 1980s made collectively by him, his siblings and his father. And the Roth family continues to be closely involved with ensuring that this environment evolves in an appropriate way. Björn revealed how, just days earlier, his sons—Dieter’s grandsons—decided to substitute the art materials on top of the studio’s wheeled “painting carriage” with bottles and glasses to form an impromptu mobile bar. A most functional, and hedonistic, intervention that definitely would have met with Dieter’s approval.
