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A new dimension of colour Why does a painting by Ellsworth Kelly looks different in natural day light and in artificial light? This question can't be answered physiologically as our eyes perceive colours in a very simplified way adding the impression of our three colour sensors - or to speak with Charles Sanders Peirce: light appears to our eye as "a triple sensation".
  • Spectral Revision - Cobalt Series Spectral Revision - Cobald series (2016) Cobalt pigments on dibond, ca. 120 x 100 cm
  • Spectral Revision - Dibond Series Spectral Revision - Dibond Series (2013) Duo, CNC cut dibond, Städtische Galerie Offenburg, 2016
  • Spectral Revision - Dibond Series Spectral Revision - Dibond Series Duo, CNC cut dibond, Städtische Galerie Offenburg, 2016
  • Spectral Revision - Dibond Series ('Landscape Version') Spectral Revision - Dibond Series ('Landscape Version') CNC cut dibond, width ca. 45 cm, 2013
  • Spectral Revision - Dibond Series Spectral Revision - Dibond Series Duo, Goethe Institut Washington D.C., 2016
  • Spectral Revision - Dibond Series Spectral Revision - RAL series spray paint on MDF, ca. 22,5 * 24cm, Goethe Institut Hanoi, 2017
  • Spectral Revision - Cobalt Series Cobald series (detail) Cobalt pirgments on dibond, ca. 120 x 100 cm, 2016
     
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The^Bob - spectroscopySpectral Revision puts a new accent to the tradition how the arts dealt with colour. It is a conceptual reflection of the phenomenon of colour not translated into words but literally translated into a spectrum by the means of spectroscopy. The spectral characteristics of existing paintings or light art is explored. For instance the artist used in the F40T12 series a hand spectrometer and colour pencils to translate the colours of a fluorescent light installation by Dan Flavin into drawings.

detail Dibond seriesDibond Series But also new works are created: In the Dibond Series from 2013 industrial coloured Alu Dibond plates are used as a kind of ready made colour canvas. In collaboration with the spectroscopist Dr. Bob Fosbury the four standard colours were analyzed with a spectrometer and finally the resulting light intensity curves were cut out the material by a CNC machine. The resulting curves are presented individually or as a kind of colour landscape composite.

Kobalt picture blue/yellowThe Cobalt series (2016) are panel paintings based on the four existing Cobalt pigment compounds. To keep up the dust like character of the pigments they were spray painted with the help of a special binder – a similar technique which was used by Yves Klein.

Ral serie violet maigruenThe most recent RAL series (2017) plays with industrial standard spray paints. Each of the paintings is unique combining to colours with its correspondent spectral shape.

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Cobalt blue/yellow
detail from the Aludibond "landscape", 2013

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RAL series
Cobalt blue & yellow, cobalt pigments with special binder on Alu dibond, ca. 100 x 160cm, 2016

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detail Dibond series
RAL series, edition with violet & green spray paint on mdf, ca. 17 x 22.5 cm, 2017

February - May 2016 XX oder der 'Mummelsee in der Pfanne', solo show, Städtische Galerie, Offenburg

November 2016 - January 2017 Light From the Other Side, solo show, gallery of the Goethe Institute, Washington D.C.

13 October - 3 November 2017 Circulating Sounds – Deep Doppler meets mathematical socialism, solo show, Goethe Institute, Washington D.C.

3 July 2020
Roth, Tim Otto; Scheurmann, Konrad: Spectral Revision – a colourful conversation, in: Science and Art: The Contemporary Painted Surface (Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing) 2020, pp. 390–403.

December 2017
Roth, Tim Otto; Scheurmann, Konrad: Spektrale Revisionen – ein Gespräch, in: GesprächsStoff Farbe (Böhlau) 2017, pp. 214–223.

Roth, Tim Otto; Hook, Richard; Doane, Alison: Das Mißtrauen gegenüber der Farbe im Bild - zur späten Ankunft der Farbenfotografie in der Astronomie, in: Rundbrief Fotografie 20 (December 2013) 4, S. 3-4.

Roth, Tim Otto; Fosbury, Robert F.: Colour beyond the sky – the chromatic revolution in astronomy, in: Blassnig, Martha (Ed.): Light, Image, Imagination – The Spectrum beyond Reality and Illusion, Amsterdam (Amsterdam University Press) 2013, pp. 242-268.

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29 October 2020 Spectral Revision, chapter presentation in occasion of the online release of the book Science and Art: The Contemporary Painted Surface (Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing) 2020.

26 March 2020 Music of the Spheres and the colourful Birth of Astrophysics, colloquium, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing

8/9 February 2018
Transcending the optics – some physcial reflection, invited talk at public symposiumFuture of Light Art, ZKM Karlsruhe (D), review in OT and video on ZKM page

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The^Bob - spectroscopySpectral Revision, F40T12 series
colour pencil drawings on paper, 28x20 cm
2013

The^Bob - spectroscopyGefängnis der Sinne, site specific installation in the old prison of Offenburg (D), 2013


The^Bob - spectroscopyThe spectral curves for the Dibond series are based on the measurements made by Bob Fosbury in his laboratory. Watch his extended spectrosopy collection on flickr.