Theodore Roszak
Skylark, 1950-1951
Cast bronze
Museum Purchase with Student Government Association funds and Partial gift of the artist
Theodore Roszak layered Skylark with references to Greek mythology, contemporary history, and even poetry. However, the work’s powerful, twisted, broken form and face like a bursting bomb convey a clear message of grief and despair even without this knowledge.
Roszak created Skylark after World War II. Before the war, he had believed that artists could change the world for the better through the marriage of beautiful design and useful function. This knowledge of engineering led him to a wartime career as an aircraft builder. Instead of improving society, Roszak’s works rained down death from the sky.
This transition in the artist’s understanding of the potential of machines and the men who build them can be seen in Roszak’s choice of myths. Icarus famously plummeted to his death after daring to fly too close to the sun on manmade wings, and here he seems to plunge toward the earth lit aflame like a comet. Skylark also alludes to the myth of Prometheus, a Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man, thus allowing for progress and civilization…the kind of progress that ultimately led to two world wars during Roszak’s lifetime. The gods also punished Prometheus for his audacity by chaining him to a rock and allowing eagles to feast on his liver. Thus the birdlike forms of Skylark may reflect the cost we pay for growth and evolution. Or, as one critic phrased it, the sculpture “reflects the plight of man descended from his Promethean heights, caught within the bonds of civilization, and reduced to the ashes of his own bones.”
However, not all interpretations of Skylark lead to despair. The title is taken from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which ultimately ends with a sense of hope for mankind.