Viktor Schreckengost 1906-2008
Creator of Groundbreaking Designs for Everything from Bikes to Bowls
Artist and industrial design giant Viktor Schreckengost passed away earlier this week at age 101. His contribution to American product design was on par with the likes of Raymond Lowey and Walter Teague.
Ceramicist Viktor Schrekengost
Born into a family of Ohio potters, Schrekengost entered the Cleveland Institute of art in 1924. When he wasn’t working on his art, he was playing saxophone or clarinet with any band that would let him sit in. His love of Jazz impacted his artistic vision, influencing perhaps his most famous work as a ceramicist, the Jazz Bowl.
While attending art school, Schrekengost visited a traveling ceramics exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1929. The exhibit featured a collection of pottery by Michael Powolny which Schrekengost considered fresher and more innovative than that which was being produced in the U.S. at that time.
Pottery at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna
Impressed with Powolny’s work, Schreckengost applied for, and won a scholarship to study with him at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts & Crafts School of the Imperial Austrian Museum of Art & Industry, founded in 1867) in Vienna. Schreckengost was enthralled by the gaiety and bustling nightlife he found in Vienna’s numerous cafes and cabarets and it informed his work. Upon completion of his studies in Vienna, he headed home to Cleveland to make his own mark in industrial design.
Schrekengost’s Modernistic Works for Cowan Pottery
Viktor returned to the U.S. full of excitement and new ideas which he was able to translate into product for the Cowan Pottery Studio. While he had been enjoying the nightlife in Vienna, Cowan had been fighting for its life. Reginald “Gus” Cowan opened his acclaimed pottery in 1921, and after some years of success, the firm went into receivership in ’30. For the first ten years, Cowan had been in the forefront of American ceramic design, and his early success was due in part to his willingness to embrace the then newly popular modernistic style, a style Schreckengost grew to love in Vienna.
The Jazz Bowl
Schrekengost joined Cowan to help bring the pottery back to life. The story goes that during his first week, Cowan handed him a letter from a gallery in New York. They had a client-a lady in Albany- who wanted a large punch bowl in a “New Yorkish” style. Schreckengost thought back to an evening he had spent watching Cab Calloway perform at the Cotton Club. He remembered the rhythm, the excitement, and “the funny blue light over everything.” He used these inspirations to create a bowl glazed in Egyptian blue and black that came to be known as The Jazz Bowl. Etched on the bowl were the iconic images and designs that have come to represent the Art Deco period. The lady in Albany liked the bowl so much she ordered two more- one for the house in Hyde Park, and one for the White House. She was, of course, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then, New York Governor Franklin, who felt pretty certain that she would soon be living on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Only fifty or so of the bowls were made, and they sold for $50, which was considered pricey in those days. Schreckengost produced another version which he called the “Poor man’s Bowl”, on which the designs were painted, not etched.
Schrekengost Bicycles, Trucks and Lawn Chairs
Schrekengost believed that mass produced items could be of high quality if they were weel designed and well made. During his long career, he created designs for bicycles, lawn chairs, printing presses, truck cabs, lawn mowers and pedal cars.
REFERENCE:American Art Deco by Alastair Duncan Thames & Hudson 1986
