The World's Fair Community: Theodore Roszak's "Forms in Space" Sculpture - The World's Fair Community

Anyone aware of the present status of this legacy? It sat in the Court of the New Horizons, in the Transportation area.

Got a letter from a gentleman who's dad worked on it for Artkraft-Strauss, the builder.

Where is it in the Park, what shape's it in?
Two of the wings torn off in a wind storm??

Any info appreciated!

I hope this helps Mike as best as it can: When I went to FMCP in Mid-August I saw the sculpture. I didn't exactly know where it was then, but I was sitting at the Grapes of Wrath Fountain, which is just a tad east of the Hall of Science, and I saw the sculpture due north down a road from the fountain. It was fenced off literally due to construction of the new rocket park and science city wing. As far as I could tell it looked in reasonable shape, it looked like it needed some paint, but I didn't see any wings or other parts missing. You should email Wendy Brez from the Hall of Science website, she should help you out. I don't see why they won't restore the sculpture. It was near the old Space Park right? And the Hall of Science is trying to restore any last remaining pieces in that area.

[This message has been edited by Expo_Seeker40 (edited 09-03-2003).]

From the Parks official signage;

FORMS IN TRANSIT SCULPTURE
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). 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.
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). 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).
Roszak was born in Poznan, Poland on May 1, 1907. His family came to the United States when he was two years old, settling in Chicago. Roszak studied art in his youth at the Art Institute Professional School in the city. 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). 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 1927, he resumed his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, still largely unaffected by modern trends in art. A fellowship in Europe in 1929 broadened his horizons, exposing him to Cubism, Fauvism, and Exp​ressionism in Paris, Germany, and Prague, causing him to adopt a new, more abstract aesthetic. Besides painting, he took up sculpture and won the Louis Comfort Tiffany award in 1931. With the proceeds, he married and settled on Staten Island.
By 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. Yet Roszak felt the search for pure forms emotionally bankrupt, and he sought to fuse modern techniques with dynamic exp​ression. 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.
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. By the 1950s Roszak had “attained recognition as the leading Abstract Exp​ressionist sculptor in America.” A retrospective of his work in 1956 at the Whitney Museum of American Art brought him to a wider audience, and he maintained a strong reputation for striking sculpture through the remainder of his career. In New York City Roszak also sculpted the 25-foot tall bronze sculpture called Sentinel (1966-68) at the Public Health Laboratories on First Avenue and 27th Street.
Forms in Transit is a massive 43-foot long sculpture of aluminum and steel tubes and sheet metal. It suggests an aircraft, with fuselage and wings, but it is also meant to embody the concept of motion and change. The work is in keeping with one of the central themes of the fair, space exploration, and complemented several other significant features in the park, such as the Rocket Thrower statue, Court of Astronauts, Fountain of the Planets, Space Park and the Unisphere.

Portions of a damaged wing were removed in 1970. Though environmental corrosion is evident, some of the patchy, blistered surface of the sculpture appears to be original to the piece, and intended to suggest the incendiary voyage of the vessel as it passes at rapid speed through the atmosphere.

November, 2001

Thanks, fellas!!

bitte.
It is located today on a circle of greenery that was a minor pool, "Fountain of Progress North" in 1964. You see it between Ford and the Hall of Science on the Fair maps. It looks just like they filled the pool in and planted and relocated the Sculpture there.

It is in poor shape. As well as the damage noted in the signage, or maybe as a result of that damaged wing, a large arching pipe-like feature came loose later and was taken into storage by either NYCParks or the Hall of Science. Even without comparison to early photos the sculpture now seems not balanced.

One would hope this sculpture will be restored soon with the HoS new all glass annex looking at it, and the new rocket park right there.

Mike? Is this guy's dad still around? Is Artkraft-Strauss? Do you have a good full pic of "forms" at the Fair?



[This message has been edited by Park Bench (edited 09-03-2003).]

Amazing that the Parks dept sign calls this "Forms in Transit" when everyone else seems to think it's "Forms in Space:...

Here's one view from the Fair on Mike's site:<a href="http://www.nywf64photos.com/PicPages/AroundFG.htm" target="_blank">http://www.nywf64photos.com/PicPages/AroundFG.htm</a>

I think I have a semi-recent photo at home as well as some from the Fair. I'll look tonight at home if no one else has posted anything recent.

[This message has been edited by billcotter (edited 09-03-2003).]

Here's a picture from SIP 1.


And here's the photo in 3D (anaglyph- red/blue glasses)


Sorry the resolution isn't better and the 3D effect is off...

[This message has been edited by MitchS (edited 09-03-2003).]

here are several:








Randy

Here's how it looked Nov. 4, 1987:



Looks like pieces were missing even then.

Ooooooooooooohhhhh... there's a timeless piece.

Maybe we can have this finely crafted sculpture at the next NY World's Fair instead of that boring old Pieta.

I must be missing something.
Not getting warm and fuzzy over that sculpture! I must have missed school that day at the Art Institute of Boston.

Sure that isn't a hunk of the Tower of the Four Winds that avoided the big dunking?

Could also be a chunk of the IBM pavilion demolition.

Okay, I guess, for the flight aspect of it, but the design and execution leave a bit to be desired. I wonder how they got that one past the devine Mr. M?

Bench, the guy's father is deceased.
Artkraft-Strauss is definately still around, and they're responsible for much of what you see in Times Square. And the great, fantastic, stupendous sign spectaculars in T.S. of the past. Still a family business. Greatest sign company in the world!

Times Square signage is incredible, no doubt about it, Mike... however, there's a little outfit out in the desert that has knocked together a few dandies...
<a href="http://www.yesco.com/home.html" target="_blank">http://www.yesco.com/home.html</a>

Yesco is indeed wonderful, but is a close #2, for sentimental reasons.
These ratings are unscientific, of course.