German painter, printmaker, and designer, born in Hanover of a Swiss father and a German mother. He moved to Switzerland in 1943 and was apprenticed as a graphic designer in Berne, 1947–51. In 1955–7 he lived in Copenhagen, and from 1957 was based mainly in Reykjavik, Iceland, though he continued to travel a good deal and in 1964–7 lived in the USA, where he taught at Yale University and elsewhere. His work was extremely varied and included objects incorporating edible materials such as chocolate. However, his best-known works are his prints: ‘Roth's random accretions of compositional ideas have produced a large body of graphic and multiple work, often in unorthodox media and in collaboration with other artists’ (Riva Castleman, Prints of the 20th Century, 2nd edn, 1988).