Roszak, Theodore, 1907-1981

Painter, sculptor, Chicago, Ill., and New York, N.Y.

Painter, sculptor (New York, N.Y.).

Sculptor, painter, designer, decorator, lithographer, teacher, craftsperson; New York City.

Born in Poland. Died in 1981. Studied at the National Academy of Design. Member of American Artists Congress. Teacher at Laboratory School of Industrial Design, N.Y.

Biographical/Historical Note

Theodore Roszak was born May 1, 1907 in Poznan, Poland. Roszak's mother was an accomplished fashion designer and his father was a organist and prolific composer. The Roszak family emigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in Chicago. Roszak began drawing at the age of seven; by the age of fifteen he was attending evening sessions at the Art Institute of Chicago Professional School. In 1925 he entered the Art Institute as a full-time student.

In 1929 Roszak received the Anna Louise Raymond Fellowship for European Study. He discovered the avant-garde movement abroad and was especially attracted to surrealism, particularly the work of Giorgio de Chirico. He returned to America and settled in New York in 1931 and was awarded a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship. Throughout the 1930s to the mid 1940s, Roszak produced mostly drawings, yet he was also experimenting with the extension of those drawings as manifested in paintings and sculpture. At this time he was influenced by constructivism and the machine aesthetic. His interests shifted subsequently and from 1946 onward he primarily produced sculpture in the abstract expressionist style. Roszak returned to drawing in the 1970s when illness prevented him from welding. Throughout his life, Roszak maintained an interest in photography. He created photograms until 1947. He also meticulously photographed his projects: his works in progress and the finished pieces.

Roszak is well known for his collaborations with Eero Saarinen, which include the spire and bell tower at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1956, and the Eagle for the United States Embassy in London, 1960. In 1956 a major traveling retrospective of his work was organized at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. He also had several important exhibitions at the Pierre Matisse Gallery and Hirschl and Adler Galleries, both in New York City. He held teaching positions at the Laboratory School of Industrial Design, New York, and Sarah Lawrence College. Roszak served on several government-sponsored committees, including the Advisory Committee on Cultural Presentations Program, Advisory Board of National Committee of Arts and Government, and the Fine Arts Commission, Washington D.C. and New York.