Abstract

      The Jazz Bowl is an icon of the Art Deco era and the signature work of Viktor Schreckengost, who created the piece in 1930 for Eleanor Roosevelt. Deco exhibitions all over the world feature this generously-sized punch bowl, with its bold blue and black imagery celebrating Prohibition-era New York City nightlife. But the story of the Jazz Bowl is more than the story of a single piece. The immediate popularity of "Eleanor's punch bowl" led to the creation of an entire series of Jazz-related pieces during the 1930s. An image-rich multi-media presentation tells the story of the original piece and the award-winning bowls and plates inspired by it.

      As part of this presentation, Jazz is also placed within the context of Schreckengost's long and prolific dual careers as artist and industrial designer. By the 1940s, the Jazz Bowl had all but disappeared from Viktor's A-list of achievements, as later ceramics and industrial designs supplanted his earlier works. But to the artist's surprise, the Jazz Bowl became Schreckengost's banner piece again a half-century later, with the burgeoning popularity of Art Deco during the early 1980s. The presentation concludes by charting Jazz's resurgence in popularity among the critics and collectors alike in recent years.

     Richard D. McClellan joined the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation as Director in the late spring of 2005.