This is the most significant of the group of chocolate multiples Roth made in the late 1960s. The title is a reference to the 1916 novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, but the work is a portrait of Roth as an old man, cast in a mixture of chocolate and birdseed. It was intended to be mounted on a post in the open air and consumed by birds until nothing remained. Unlike a traditional marble portrait bust, meant to endure through the ages, this work is a testament to Roth’s belief in impermanence and the inevitability of aging and bodily decay.

Get more information about conservation issues and P.O.TH.A.A.VFB (Portrait of the artist as a Vogelfutterbüste [birdseed bust]).