A Thoroughly Industrial Artist
By the late 1930s, Roszak was working in the Design Laboratory of New York, exploring industrial forms. He wrote: "I had every conceivable tool, weapon, material that modern industry had at my disposal right there in my shop.... I designed tools and dies for industry. I designed machines. I built a whole plastic automobile — I mean the whole works."
His 1937 wood and Plexiglas sculpture called Construction in White is rooted in this concept of industrial design as a means of enhancing society. Just the way Roszak prepared blueprints for his geometric sculptures shows how thoroughly he considered himself an industrial artist. He said, "I always felt that the two-dimensional aspects of abstract painting were very much like a blueprint for architecture."
Pictured: Theodore Roszak, Construction in White, 1937; mixed media: wood, masonite, plastic, acrylic, and Plexiglas, 80 1/4 x 80 1/4 x 18 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Theodore Roszak.
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