Schreckengost Works Exhibited at Renwick, Tacoma Museum of Art

Exhibitions Include Culver Trophy, Jazz Bowl, and Blue Revel

The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Tacoma Museum of Art are displaying works by Viktor Schreckengost in current and upcoming shows, respectively.

Women’s Flying Trophy, 1939, also known as Culver Trophy

This past weekend the Renwick opened an exhibition series organized by the Dallas Museum of Art entitled Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, which includes Viktor’s *Woman’s Flying Trophy* (1939). Commonly known as the Culver Trophy, the elegant silver trophy is on loan from the Wolfsonian (Florida International University) for the traveling show. As explained in Viktor Schreckengost and 20th-Century Design by Henry Adams, Viktor "was commissioned to create the Culver Air Trophy by K.K. Culver, the head of the Dart Aircraft Corporation in Columbus, Ohio. The award was intended for a woman’s air race over a 50-mile straight course, an event being added to the Miami All-American Air Maneuvers in Florida. Viktor’s design…featured a graceful horizontal figure, representing the feminine spirit of flight, suspended from an angled, tapering shaft, which contributed to the sense of uplift and forward movement." Adams continues, "An important aspect of the effect was the use of shimmering metal surfaces. While the piece was cast in bronze, it was plated with silver, except for the airplane at the top (not shown), which was plated in gold. As (art critic Grace V.) Kelly noted: 'Subtle highlights play over its surface and become an integral part of the design. Its effect should be wonderful to behold in the brilliant sunshine of Florida.'"

A report in Art Museum Network News explains that the exhibition seeks "to chart the stylistic design history of modern American production silver from 1925 to 2000 and reintroduce to the public the many designers working in the industry." The exhibition will travel to Dallas, Miami and Memphis. Read the full report.

Blue Revel, 1931

A Jazz Bowl and Blue Revel, one of Viktor’s few oil paintings, will be on display at the Tacoma Museum of Art beginning February 4, 2006. The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915-1935 "explores the varied ways in which American artists…conveyed what it meant to be a modern American" during this time period.

Much has been said about Jazz Bowls, but Blue Revel is less-known. This painting, inspired by trips to the Globe Theatre, features a chorus line of dancing girls and a pit band. The near-caricature depiction of African-American performers reflects Viktor’s training as a cartoonist; this characteristic is present in many of Viktor’s human subjects. Despite the flattening of some forms in this painting, Viktor maintains a sense of dimensionality by overlapping several figures and creating a receding perspective with the lineup of dancers. Both angled and rounded forms repeat throughout the canvas, recreating in visual form the complex sounds that would greet the audience of this performance. The effect is a visual cacophony that is nonetheless rhythmic: an ordered chaos, much like jazz itself. The piece was originally displayed at the May Show in Cleveland, 1931.

The Jazz Bowl is on loan from The Cowan Pottery Museum, and Blue Revel has been borrowed from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The exhibition will be open through May 21, 2006.