• Biography
  • Exhibitions
  • Drawing
  • Painting (1929-47)
  • Construction (1932-45)
  • Sculpture (1945-69)
  • Public Commission (1955-78)
  • Photogram (1932-41)
  • Lithography
  • Bibliography
  • Contact
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Theodore Roszak

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(1907-1981) First generation New York abstract expressionist artist

sculptor, painter, draughtsman

Theodore Roszak

  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
  • Drawing
  • Painting (1929-47)
  • Construction (1932-45)
  • Sculpture (1945-69)
  • Public Commission (1955-78)
  • Photogram (1932-41)
  • Lithography
  • Bibliography
  • Contact

1956 MIT Bell Tower, Cambridge MA

The Bell Tower was created for a non-denominational chapel designed by architect Eero Saarinen on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. 

 

"My first impulse was to create a set of verticals and there were three here. The first two converge to a common point and suggest a gothic form and we know that gothic architecture had a very important role in the history of ecclesiastic development and also a gargoyle. The gargoyle was used to ward off evil spirits and to protect the sanctity of the edifice. If you look at it horizontally it would be a whale.  Then the canopy which is also the arch that contains the bell has the common qualities of the universal meaning of canopy in ritual. The canopy is also the interior belly of the whale. We observe and recall how Jonah, caught in the belly of the whale, was actually the first member to institutionalize the edifice of a church, and it was there that he found his salvation and his deliverance."

[Paraphrased from interview Theodore Roszak by James Elliot, 1956, p.17] 

1956 MIT Bell Tower, Cambridge MA

The Bell Tower was created for a non-denominational chapel designed by architect Eero Saarinen on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. 

 

"My first impulse was to create a set of verticals and there were three here. The first two converge to a common point and suggest a gothic form and we know that gothic architecture had a very important role in the history of ecclesiastic development and also a gargoyle. The gargoyle was used to ward off evil spirits and to protect the sanctity of the edifice. If you look at it horizontally it would be a whale.  Then the canopy which is also the arch that contains the bell has the common qualities of the universal meaning of canopy in ritual. The canopy is also the interior belly of the whale. We observe and recall how Jonah, caught in the belly of the whale, was actually the first member to institutionalize the edifice of a church, and it was there that he found his salvation and his deliverance."

[Paraphrased from interview Theodore Roszak by James Elliot, 1956, p.17] 

1955_MIT_Tower_chapel.jpg
1955_MIT_Men_Working_8.jpg

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© Estate of Theodore Roszak / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.