Spectre of Kitty Hawk

Roszak began his career as a constructivist sculptor in the 1930s. At the end of World War II, disillusioned with the use of technology in battle, he turned to a more expressionist mode. Through menacing figures inspired by plants and animals, he explored themes of death, destruction, and ritual violence. With its reference to the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, this dinosaurlike figure symbolizes the airplane's horrific consequence on modern warfare. The drawing is related to one of Roszack's major sculptures, now in the Museum of Modern Art.