Roszak’s Spectre of Kitty Hawk sculpture (1946-47) in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, is less about a specific aircraft than about the spirit of flight. During World War II, Roszak was employed on an assembly line at the Brewster Aircraft Corporation, and this experience would have a significant impact on the methods and materials he used in his post-war sculpture. Yet Roszak felt the search for pure forms emotionally bankrupt, and he sought to fuse modern techniques with dynamic expression. With the proceeds, he married and settled on Staten Island.īy the late 1930s he had developed a streamlined style of constructionist sculpture, strongly influenced by Bauhaus principles of architecture and design and his association with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s Design Laboratory in New York City. Besides painting, he took up sculpture and won the Louis Comfort Tiffany award in 1931. A fellowship in Europe in 1929 broadened his horizons, exposing him to Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism in Paris, Germany, and Prague, causing him to adopt a new, more abstract aesthetic. In 1927, he resumed his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, still largely unaffected by modern trends in art. He also took philosophy courses at Columbia University, which he later said had a profound influence on his understanding of “intangible forces which control men’s lives.” In 1926, he moved to New York, and received instruction at the National Academy of Design, as well as from private lessons with painter George Luks (1867-1933). Roszak studied art in his youth at the Art Institute Professional School in the city. His family came to the United States when he was two years old, settling in Chicago. Roszak was born in Poznan, Poland on May 1, 1907. Ultimately, five sculptors were commissioned to create pieces which would stay in the park after the fair ended, including Roszak, Paul Manship (1885–1966), Marshall Fredericks (1908–1998), Jose de Rivera (1904–1985), and Donald De Lue (1897–1988). In 1961, the New York World’s Fair Corporation, under the direction of former Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888–1981), established a Committee on Sculpture to select sculptors whose work ranged “from contemporary conservative to the more conservative avant-garde.” The committee arrived at a short list of ten recommended modernist sculptors, many of whom displeased the traditional tastes of Moses and the fair’s chief designer Gilmore Clarke (1892–1982). It was commissioned as part of the permanent sculptural program of the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65, held in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Located on the grounds of the New York Hall of Science, this distinctive sculpture, dating to 1964, is by the modernist sculptor Theodore Roszak (1907–1981). Through generous funding from the Recreational Trails Program grant, GreenerNYC, and Con-Ed, various volunteer groups installed paving stones and wooden puncheons for travel through the wetland areas on the west side of the lake near the Grand Central Parkway.This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found postedwithin the park. The main trail runs along the south side of the lake and over a wooden bridge. Hikers can access a short trail leading north to a bird blind and scenic viewpoint of the lake. This project removed invasive plants and planted native species. Near the Van Wyck Expressway, the trail passes through an extensive habitat restoration project that was completed in 2018 by the Forestry, Horticulture & Natural Resources division of NYC Parks. Hikers can access the trail from the east at the Van Wyck Expressway overpass at Mauro Playground (73rd Terrace and Park Drive East) and from the west at 72nd Road and the Grand Central Parkway Service Road. Dolan is remembered as a dedicated park advocate who frequented the trail, which crosses the Willow Lake Forever Wild Preserve. The Pat Dolan Trail was named after founder and first president of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Conservancy.
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