The Mint Museums Exhibit Viktor Schreckengost

Mint Museums Press Release, ArtKnowledgeNews.com, March 21, 2006

The Mint Museums Take Part in The Viktor Schreckengost National Centennial Exhibition

For the first time in 67 years, The Four Elements which graced the foyer of the State Dining Room in the United States Federal Building at the 1939 World’s Fair, will be on view at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design. Designed by internationally acclaimed ceramist and award-winning industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, Air, Earth, Fire, and Water are being mounted in conjunction with the Viktor Schreckengost National Centennial Celebration.

For 100 days (March 18-June 26) The Mint Museums are joining nearly 130 institutions across the country, including: art and ceramics museums; historical societies and archives; libraries; pedal car and bicycle collections; military museums and a mounted police stable; parks and churches; public schools, private homes, and restaurants, all of which will be showcasing Schreckengost’s work in celebration of his 100th birthday on June 26, 2006.

Born in Sebring, Ohio, Schreckengost learned the craft of sculpting in clay from his father. A graduate of the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art or CIA), he majored in ceramics. Upon graduation in 1929, he ventured to Vienna, Austria, to study ceramics for one year with Michael Powolny at the Kunstgewerbeschule. There, he began to build a reputation, not only for his art, but also as a jazz saxophonist.

At the age of 25, he became the youngest faculty member at the CIA. Shortly thereafter, he began working at the Cowan Pottery Studio, in Rocky River, Ohio. One of his first commissions, in 1930, was a large punch bowl for Eleanor Roosevelt. The Jazz Bowl, as it is known, has become one of the signature pieces of American Art Deco and an icon of the Jazz Age.

By the mid-1930s, Schreckengost had started to pursue his interest in industrial design. Among his early seminal designs were Americana, the first modern mass-produced dinnerware, designed for American Limoges and the first-cab-over-engine truck designed along with Ray Spiller, for Cleveland's White Motor Company.

By the end of the decade, Schreckengost became the chief bicycle designer for Murray-Ohio. In 1939, he released his first design, the 1939 Mercury Bicycle, which was displayed along with four of his sculptures (The Four Elements) at the New York World's Fair.

The Four Elements developed from a series that Schreckengost began in 1937. Based on the techniques he had learned in Vienna, under the tutelage of Michael Powolny, Schreckengost designed these allegorical sculptures. Though sculptor Waylande Gregory invited Schreckengost to submit designs for the 1939 World’s Fair in October 1938, his submissions were not selected until March 1939. With less than six weeks until the Fair opened, Walter Dorwin Teague requested Schreckengost execute his ideas as quickly as possible. To define these highly stylized sculptures, Schreckengost opted to employ colored clays, glazing various stylistic elements and firing the whole one time only. Pushing out and pushing through the ceramic walls, he transformed a basic vase form into these exotic, mask-like heads. They were originally displayed on white pedestals ten feet high, beams of light streaming through their eyes.

In the early 1940s Viktor began quietly revolutionizing the manufacture of children's pedal cars as well. His talents were recognized again, during his service with the U.S. Navy and he was recruited to develop a system for radar recognition that won him the Secretary of Navy's commendation. Schreckengost resumed his industrial design career after the war, creating products for Murray, Sears, General Electric, Salem China Company, and Harris Printing, among others. Approximately 100 million of his bicycles and pedal cars were manufactured by Murray, which made it the largest bicycle-maker in the world.

Though he retired from industrial design in 1972, he continued teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Today, he is Professor Emeritus at the institute and continues to follow the progress of his former students and help where he can on campus.

The diversity of audiences reached by the National Centennial Exhibition illustrates Viktor's far-reaching impact into several industries and art communities, and pays tribute to the artist's creed that "good design should be available to everyone."

The Viktor Schreckengost National Centennial Celebration is being organized by The Viktor Schreckengost Foundation and Schreckengost Exhibitions. Over 100 different venues will showcase the art and design of Viktor Schreckengost between March 18 and June 26, 2006.

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