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Roszak (Theodore) Papers
960023
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Theodore Roszak papers
Creator:
Roszak, Theodore, 1907-1981
Identifier/Call Number: 960023
Physical Description:
137 Linear Feet
(68 boxes, 4 rolls, 9 flat file folders, 1 portfolio)
Date (inclusive): 1926-1994 (bulk 1930-1980)
Date (bulk): 1930-1980
Abstract: Papers of sculptor, painter, and designer Theodore Roszak include the artist's photographs of his work and installations,
correspondence and documents relating to public and private commissions, lectures and teaching notes, 55 sketchbooks, working
and presentation drawings, and newspaper and journal clippings, some collected in scrapbooks.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material:
English
.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Theodore Roszak papers document Theodore Roszak's artistic career, based predominantly in New York, from 1926 to 1981.
The material was generated and collected by Theodore Roszak, with additional materials added by his wife Florence and his
daughter Sarah Jane Roszak, some of which date to 1994. The collection contains about 137 linear feet of personal papers,
photographs, business correspondence, press clippings, drawings, architectural and engineering plans and audio recordings.
Media in the collection include drawings (pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, etc.), photographs, printed matter, painting, audio
tapes, teaching notes, and small number of transparencies and 35 mm slides.
The collection documents Roszak's artistic processes from the sketching of an idea to the construction of the object, to its
packaging and exhibition. The Roszak papers also document preservation, and logistical and financial details regarding the
sale and exhibition of his artwork.
Organized in three series:
Series I. Personal and family papers, 1930-1981
Series II. Business papers, 1930-1990
Series III. Art work, 1926-1981
Series IV. Audio recordings, undated
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.
Theodore Roszak papers, 1928-1981. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian. Some of the materials microfilmed by the Archives
were returned to Roszak and, consequently, form part of the papers acquired by Getty Research Institute.
Theodore Roszak interview, 1963. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.
Ten monographs, most of them exhibition catalogs, were transferred to the Library's general collections.
Acquired in 1996.
Theodore Roszak papers, 1926-1994, bulk 1930-1980. Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 960023
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa960023
Open for use by qualified researchers. Audio visual material not available until reformatting is complete.
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Subjects and Indexing Terms
Drawings (visual works)
Photographic prints
Sculptors -- United States
Sculpture, Abstract
Sculpture, American
Photograms
Blueprints (reprographic copies)
Abstract expressionism -- United States
Constructivism (Art) -- United States
Public art -- Designs and plans
Public art—United States
Saarinen, Eero, 1910-1961
Roszak, Theodore, 1907-1981
Roszak, Theodore, 1907-1981
Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946