Theodore Roszak (artist)
Theodore Roszak ( born May 1, 1907 in Posen, Kingdom of Prussia, † September 3, 1981 in New York City ) was an American sculptor of Polish origin. He is one of the most important representatives of constructivism and of abstract art after the Second World War, who also worked as a painter.
Life and work
Theodore Roszak was born in 1907 in Poznan as a child Polish parents in what was then the German Empire and settled already with two years ago, in 1909, with his parents to the United States. He studied from 1922 to 1928 at the Art Institute of Chicago with John Norton, Boris Anisfeld and Charles F. Kelley and later in New York. During a stay in Europe from 1929 to 1930, he learned the Modernism and know the formalism of the Bauhaus and the Czech and Polish Constructivists. After his return to the U.S. he had already Laszlo Moholy- Nagy's " The New Vision" internalized, a groundbreaking study of constructivist principles.
He devoted himself only to painting before 1931, the first sculptures were created. From 1940 to 1945 he worked in the aircraft industry. Experiences with shapes and designs from this period are reflected in his work. His art of the 30s and 40s, is of modernist and positivist charisma. He combined technology and machine elements with round, soft shapes. From 1941 photograms were part of his repertoire. After 1945, his first steel sculptures created. The forms of his sculptures were always organic and expressive.
His art gained only in the fifties of the 20th century international attention and recognition. He took part in documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959. His works are included in the collections of numerous museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Smithsonian Institution. His art has been shown in several exhibitions in Paris and New York, especially after 1978.
Works
- Recording sound, 1932, plastic / oil on wood ( 81.3 x 121.9 x 17.1 cm); Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Bi-Polar in Red, 1940, metal / plastic / wood ( 137.6 × 21.9 × 21.9 cm); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Stock No.. 79.6a -c