id: 163645 accession number: 2005.144 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2005.144 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:54.568000 White and Steel Polars, 1945. Theodore Roszak (American, 1907–1981). Painted wood, steel, iron, and Plexiglas; overall: 271.8 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm (107 x 16 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2005.144 © Estate of Theodore Roszak / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY title: White and Steel Polars title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1945 creation date earliest: 1945 creation date latest: 1945 current location: 226B American Modern creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: © Estate of Theodore Roszak / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY --- culture: America, 20th century technique: painted wood, steel, iron, and Plexiglas department: American Painting and Sculpture collection: American - Sculpture type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Theodore Roszak (American, 1907–1981) - artist Theodore Roszak American, b. Prussia, 1907-1981 Theodore Roszak was a painter and sculptor whose interest in modern European art and the writings of László Moholy-Nagy led him to experiment with photograms in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Although born in Posen (now Poznan, Poland), Roszak grew up in Chicago. While in high school he took evening classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, enrolling there as a full-time student in 1925. In 1926 he moved to New York City, where he studied briefly with Charles Hawthorne at the National Academy of Design and then privately with painter George Luks. He also attended classes in logic and philosophy at Columbia University. The next year he returned to Chicago, resuming his studies at the Art Institute. In 1929 Roszak was awarded a fellowship which allowed him to travel in Europe for two years; during this time he became acquainted with constructivism and the philosophy of the Bauhaus. He returned to the United States in 1931, settling in New York City. His work of this period reflected the influence of constructivist aesthetics. By the mid-1930s he was primarily producing wall reliefs and freestanding geometric constructions made from plastic and wood. From about 1937-41 Roszak began making photograms (cameraless photographs) as a way to experiment with light and geometric form. He also incorporated photograms into his teaching curriculum at the Design Laboratory, an experimental school inspired by the principles of the Bauhaus and Moholy-Nagy (funded by the government under the wpa), where he taught from 1938–40. During these years he produced hundreds of photograms, which he never exhibited. From 1940-56 Roszak taught at Sarah Lawrence College. During World War II he taught aircraft mechanics and built airplanes at the Brewster Aircraft Corporation in New Jersey. After the war his sculpture, now created out of welded metal, shifted from a concern with geometric shapes to an interest in more organic, expressionistic forms. Roszak continued to be active as a sculptor throughout the 1960s and from 1970–72 taught at Columbia University. The Cleveland Museum of Art also owns two sculptures by Roszak. M.M. --- measurements: Overall: 271.8 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm (107 x 16 x 16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-06-09T00:00:00 The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Theodore Roszak Constructions, 1932-1945. Zabriskie Gallery, New York (October 31–December 2, 1978).', 'opening_date': '1978-10-31T05:00:00Z'} --- PROVENANCE (Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY, sold to Atlantic Richfield Company, Los Angeles) date: 1978-1979 footnotes: citations: Atlantic Richfield Company, Los Angeles, CA date: 1978-1979 footnotes: citations: Atlantic Richfield Company, Los Angeles, CA, transfer to ARCO International Gas & Oil, Plano, TX date: 1979 footnotes: citations: ARCO International Gas & Oil, Plano, TX to (Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY and Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, IL) date: 1979-2000 footnotes: citations: (Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY and Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, IL ) sold to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2000-2005 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2005- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Urdang, Beth. Theodore Roszak: Constructions, 1932-1945. Exhibition pamphlet. New York: Zabriskie Gallery, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 7 url: Zabriskie Gallery advertisement, Art in America 66 (November-December 1978). page number: Mentioned: p. 51 url: Kramer, Hilton. "Art: Roszak Evokes Spirit of Bauhaus," New York Times (December 1,1978). page number: Mentioned: p. C17 url: Fichner-Rathus, Lois. Theodore Roszak: Drawings for Constructions, 1931-1945; and Preparatory Sketches, Models and Castings for the MIT Bell Tower, 1955. page number: Mentioned: p. 2 url: Marter, Joan. "Theodore Roszak’s Early Constructions: The Machine as Creator of Fantastic and Ideal Forms," Arts Magazine 54 (November 1979). page number: Mentioned: p. 110 url: Marter, Joan. "Constructivism in America: The 1930s." Arts Magazine 56 (June 1982). page number: Reproduced: p. 79 url: Pachner, Joan. "Theodore Roszak and David Smith: A Question of Balance," Arts Magazine 58 (February 1984). page number: Mentioned: p. 103 url: Dreishpoon,Douglas. Theodore Roszak: Constructivist Works, 1931-1947: Paintings, Constructions, Drawings, Photograms. Exhibition catalog. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1992. page number: Reproduced: p. 11 url: Dreishpoon, Douglas. Theodore J. Roszak (1907-1981): Painting and Sculpture. Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1993. page number: Reproduced: fig. 44 url: Carberry,Valerie. Selections from the Current Inventory: Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper vol. VII. Chicago: Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Spring 2001). page number: Mentioned: p. 16-17 url: Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. page number: Mentioned: p. 120; Reproduced: p. 69 url: Cole, Mark. "Bi-polar Order" Cleveland Art 46 (March 2006). page number: Mentioned: p. 8-9; Reproduced: p. 8, cover url: Cole, Mark, "Bi-polar Order", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 03, March 2006 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2006-03/page/8 Cleveland Museum of Art, Annual Report (2005-2006). page number: Mentioned: p. 4, 30 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art, The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Scala Art Publishers, 2014. page number: Mentioned: p. 60 url: --- IMAGES