• 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
1948_Thorn_Blossom_Sculpture_Whitney_2.jpg

Thorn Blossom, 1948

"was made on the eve of the birth of the artist's daughter Sara Jane, and involves a highly personal emotion. The delicate and lovely flower which in order to survive must throw up a shield of thorns become a symbol of those many children whom war and destruction never permitted to develop."

[H.H. Arnason, "Theodore Roszak" The Walker Art Center, p.33, 1956] 

 

"I made it on the eve of Sara Jane's birth and it was a kind of invocation of a gentle and beautiful floral structure that in order to survive would require the extension of thorns. It reminded me a little of the plight of many of the lives that were not fully developed or had the possibility of growth, particularly in Europe, and when Sara Jane was born I could not help but feel that same kind of plight and a desire on the part of her own development and survival in terms of acquiring these characteristics."  

[Theodore Roszak Interview with Elliott, 1956, p.15]

Thorn Blossom, 1948

"was made on the eve of the birth of the artist's daughter Sara Jane, and involves a highly personal emotion. The delicate and lovely flower which in order to survive must throw up a shield of thorns become a symbol of those many children whom war and destruction never permitted to develop."

[H.H. Arnason, "Theodore Roszak" The Walker Art Center, p.33, 1956] 

 

"I made it on the eve of Sara Jane's birth and it was a kind of invocation of a gentle and beautiful floral structure that in order to survive would require the extension of thorns. It reminded me a little of the plight of many of the lives that were not fully developed or had the possibility of growth, particularly in Europe, and when Sara Jane was born I could not help but feel that same kind of plight and a desire on the part of her own development and survival in terms of acquiring these characteristics."  

[Theodore Roszak Interview with Elliott, 1956, p.15]

 Nickel-silver and steel  33 1/8 x 18 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches  Collection:  Whitney Museum of American Art, New York . Purchase 1948.

Nickel-silver and steel

33 1/8 x 18 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches

Collection: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Purchase 1948.

Study for Thorn Blossom, 1946-47

Study for Thorn Blossom, 1946-47

Ink and opaque watercolor on paper

14 × 10 in (35.6 × 25.4 cm)

Collection: Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. Gift of the Theodore Roszak Estate (1983).

Thorn Blossom, 1947

Thorn Blossom, 1947

Gouache on paper

14 7/8 x 10 9/16 inches (37.78 x 26.83 cm)

Collection: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine. Gift of the Theodore Roszak Estate (2010).

Exhibition History:

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, 1948 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, and Drawings, January 31 - March 21, 1948

Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Contemporary Painting from the United States, Great Britain and France: 50th Anniversary Exhibition, November 4, 1949 – April 3, 1950

Artists’ Gallery, New York, New York, 96 Artists Who have been given One – Man Shows, January 22 – January 29, 1951

College of Architecture, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, Loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, April 20 - April 27, 1952

John Wanamaker’s Department Store, Great Neck, New York, Art in America 20th Century, March 1 – March 14, 1953 [organized by the Great Neck Education Association, Great Neck, New York]

Junior Art Gallery, Louisville Free Public Library, Louisville, Kentucky, Everything is Growing, May 24 – July 23, 1955

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, Theodore Roszak, September 18 – November 11, 1956; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 16, 1956 – January 20, 1957; Los Angeles City Museum, Los Angeles, California, February 13 – March 17, 1957; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California, April 4 – May 26, 1957; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, June 12 – August 11, 1957

La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy, XXX Biennale Internazionale D’Arte, June 18 – October 16, 1960 [organized by the Baltimore Modern of Art]

Museum of Art, Science, and Industry, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, etc., August 14 – September 30, 1962

The Monmouth Museum, Asbury Park, New Jersey, Twenty Years of American Sculpture 1946 – 1966: from the Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, May 8 - June 12, 1966

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, American Art of the Twentieth Century, Selections from the PC, June 30 – September 24, 1967

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, 70 Years of American Art, July 3 – September 28, 1969

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, American Art: 1900-1949, September 29 – November 4, 1969

Century Association, New York, New York, Works by Theodore Roszak, June 2 – September 26, 1971

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, Selections from the Permanent Collection, February 7 – February 28, 1972

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, American Abstract Art: A Survey from the Permanent Collection, July 24, 1975 - October 26, 1975

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, Decade of Transition 1940 - 1950: Selections from the Permanent Collection, April 30 - July 12, 1981

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, The Theodore Roszak Bequest, January 21 – March 18, 1984

Sarah Lawrence College Gallery, Bronxville, New York, Sculptural Expressions: Seven Artists in Metal and Drawing 1947 – 1960, October 8 – November 17, 1985

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000 (Part 1), April 23 – August 22, 1999

New York State Museum, Albany, New York, Meaning, Medium, and Method: American Sculpture 1940-1960, December 8, 2001 – February 24, 2002

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, 2Dà3D, January 19 – April 22, 2007

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