Philbrook Museum of Art participates in National Centennial

Philbrook New Release, March 26th, 2006

Viktor Schreckengost Nat. Centennial Exhibition

http://www.philbrook.org/exhibitions/exhibition.cfm?featured=1&id=10

MARCH 26 - JUNE 26

Few have heard his name but we all have used or played with his products and toys. Viktor Schreckengost is 100 and Philbrook is part of a select group of museums exhibiting his work to celebrate this centenarian's industrial design talents. On exhibit until June 26 are 10 of Schreckengost's concept drawings and their finished products for Jiffy Ware, an oven-to-table commercial line designed to take up a minimum amount of space in a refrigerator.

"That design efficiency is Schreckengost's distinction," said Philbrook Curator Chris Kallenberger.

"Just before WWII and after, he showed America an uncanny ability to blend line and utilitarian function in a useful product that is pleasing to the eye. He was the first designer in this country to bring a modern approach to dinnerware design. Children everywhere have enjoyed his bicycles, including wheelies and banana seats, which rescued a failing Cleveland business, Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company in the 1940s," said Kallenberger.

Executive Director Brian Ferriso said, "While at Murray Ohio designing bicycles and other products for 30 years, Schreckengost made a presentation to Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company (OTASCO) and got to know Tulsan Edgar Sanditen. The painting in this exhibit was presented to OTASCO in 1971 in recognition of their long and successful business partnership."

Fifty million Schreckengost bicycles were produced under 108 different labels for Sears, Schwartz, Firestone and Western Flyer. Of his 82 different design patents, 28 are bicycle-related. In addition to bicycles and cooking ware his designs ranged from printing presses to riding lawn mowers, chairs to flatware.

On the more artistic front, Schreckengost designed the "Jazz Bowl," one of the most celebrated icons of the Art Deco era. Commissioned in 1930 by Eleanor Roosevelt at a cost of $50, today a Jazz Bowl is worth over a quarter million dollars.

This centennial exhibit is from the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation, home to 1503 pieces of artwork, which were produced from the mid-1920s to 1998. In addition to holding numerous design patents, Schreckengost founded the country's first industrial design department at the Cleveland Institute of Art and was a teacher of many of America's industrial designers.

Other museums participating in the Schreckengost centennial exhibition are the Dallas Museum of Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago.