(back to top)

In this canvas, Roszak combined geometric abstraction, Surrealism, and his fascination with technology to create visual descriptions of sound.

Roszak, a skilled violinist, depicts the act of music making and the machine capable of recording it.

(back to top)

Theodore Roszak

Girl at the Piano: Recording Sound, 1935

oil on canvas

37 x 48 in.

James E. Roberts Fund and Martha Delzell Memorial Fund

Learn More

Theodore Roszak was born in Poland and came to Chicago at the age of two.  He studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago.  Roszak began his career as a traditional painter, but his style changed when he was exposed to modern art during a trip to Europe.  His major influence was the theories espoused by the German Bauhaus School, which attempted to create a new approach to architecture that incorporated design, craftsmanship, and modern machine technology. Roszak is best known for his sculptures that utilized the concepts of the Bauhaus.  They were abstract geometric machine age style forms with clean lines and minimal detail.  Many of these pieces resembled the amoeba-like shapes of Joan Miro. 

In Girl at the Piano, Roszak combined geometric abstraction, Surrealism, and his fascination with the technology of the machine age to create visual descriptions of sound.  Roszak was an accomplished violinist, and in this painting portrays both the act of music making and the machine capable of recording it.  As a trained toolmaker, and an advocate of the Bauhaus School ideals, Roszak believed in the integration of industry and art.  His attitude is reflected in the colorful, intricate mechanism linking the key board to the recording stylus.  The three enigmatic forms to the left of the pianist’s head resemble machine parts, but they could also be Roszak’s visual symbols for the musician’s abstract thoughts.  Blending the contemplative aura of the pianist with the sleek precision of his machines, Roszak matches his imaginative sense with his reverence for logic and rationality. 

Reference

Douglas Dreishpoon.  Theodore Roszak: Paintings and Drawings from the 1930s, New York: Hirschl and Adler, 1989. ASIN: B0028HSH76