Abstract Photogravure - Theodore Roszak

Polish-born, Chicago-trained artist Theodore Roszak embraced the ideals and aesthetic of the Machine Age. During a sojourn in Europe from 1929 to 1931, Roszak was deeply influenced by the utopian commitment to conjoin art and industry promulgated by the Bauhaus, the experimental German art school. Returning to New York, he embarked on a fertile investigation of this idea in an array of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, lithography, and photography. The sculptures that resulted—and for which Roszak is best known—are streamlined geometric forms produced from industrial materials such as prefabricated metal and plastic. Despite their machine aesthetic, these works remain tied to the natural world, with sinuous or biomorphic elements that evoke figurative forms.