< Back: Monastic period menu   |  Main menu |  Search  |  Contact  | Copyright New York, 1960-1962  Roman’s abbot sent him to NY for specialized study in 1960. He resided in mid-town Manhattan at  St. Michael's  Rectory on west 34th Street, an area bordering on the "Tenderloin District" known as  "Hell's Kitchen".  As a monk in residence at Saint Michael’s  Roman did part-time parish work, and pursued studies at NYU, Columbia and Pratt Institute. He also maintained a modest studio in an unoccupied room on the top floor of the rectory. This was the Manhattan of the West Side Story and the Parish was adapting to its growing Spanish speaking community. The shock of this move from the peaceful solitude of the monastery in Western Pennsylvania wore off as Roman adapted his daily routine to the sound and tempo of city life. The painting below was painted shortly after he had set up his NY studio.     Click for a personal account of departure from cloister
	Monk on West 34th St., 4' by 4', 1960, oil on canvas. (Click for larger image) The painting suggests experience on west 34th Street and the city in general including rush hour with crowds of people; the  sign with a "Y" recalls the YMCA on 34th Street but it may also refer to "why". This work shows the influence of Ben Shahn whose work had an appeal for its social consciousness.

With the help of advisors and friends Roman established contact with older New York  abstract expressionists as well as younger artists involved with emerging op, pop, neo-dada, and minimalist trends. Helen Farr Sloan,  wife of the late John Sloan,  met regularly with Roman and became his mentor on the earlier generation of New York painters. Stephen Joy, the Martha Jackson Gallery curator who mounted the 1959 "found object" show, knew many of the emerging artists in New York,  and became a lifelong friend.. Studio visits and meetings with artists as diverse as Barney Newman, Fritz Eichenberg, Ad Reinhard, and George Brecht  led Roman to become familiar with  the struggles these  artists experienced as they wrestled with their art.  He learned that many searched for spiritual fulfilment through their art in a manner similar to that of the monks in their spiritual quest.  From these experiences he came to feel a kinship with cutting edge arts movements and found himself challenging  many of his own assumptions about his life and his art. Above: Center fold from a 1961 Harpers Bazaar  feature on the New York avant garde.  Picture profiles Roman, left of centerfold facing right and conversing with John Chamberlain (with mustache) whose junk auto sculptures provoked mixed responses from the public. Andy Warhol, farther right, back to back with Chamberlain, was emerging then as a major artist in a new movement that would come to be known as "pop art".

Below: During his New York period Roman worked with both oils and acrylics. His oil paintings reflected aspects of earlier work as in the angel choirs below. By 1961 he was working on wood panels with a gesso base. With thin washes of acrylic rubbed over the surface he was able to achieve the effects of floating forms that would become an integral part of his New City series. For a later statement on the New City Series click here.  At the same time he made hundreds of drawings using spontaneous pen and brush strokes. None of these survived a fire that gutted most of the monastery in 1963. The lost drawings formed the basis for his work in Paris and later work of the 60's, especially as in the Psalms in Sound and Image. These automatic drawings and brush works served as the springboard for his first algorithmic works.

	Angel Choirs, 1960. c. 22" by 36". oil on canvas.
	Untitled, 1961 c.16" by 36"  gesso and acrylic on wood
	The New City (red on wood version), 1961. 24" by 36" gesso and acrylic on wood.

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