Viktor Schreckengost | |
|---|---|
 First LadyLaura Bush, 100-year-old industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, and U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush at the presentation of the 2006National Medal of Arts in theOval Office of theWhite House on November 9, 2006 | |
| Born | (1906-06-26)June 26, 1906 |
| Died | January 26, 2008(2008-01-26) (aged 101) |
| Occupation | Industrial designer |
Viktor Schreckengost (June 26, 1906 – January 26, 2008) was anAmericanindustrial designer as well as a teacher, sculptor, and artist. His wide-ranging work included noted pottery designs, industrial design, bicycle design and seminal research on radar feedback. Schreckengost's peers included designersRaymond Loewy,Norman Bel Geddes,Eva Zeisel, andRussel Wright.
Born and raised inSebring, Ohio, Schreckengost was one of six children. His father worked at a ceramics factory from which he brought home material for his children to model. Every week he held a sculpture contest among the children, the winner of which accompanied his father on his weekend trip into the local big city,Alliance, Ohio. Only years later did Schreckengost realize that his father systematically rotated the winner. His younger brothersDonald and Paul Schreckengost also went on to careers as ceramicists.[1]
Schreckengost graduated from theCleveland School of the Arts (now theCleveland Institute of Art) in 1929, at which time he earned a partial scholarship to study at theKunstgewerbeschule inVienna. To make the trip, he borrowed $1,500 from two owners of Gem Clay, an industrial ceramics manufacturer in Sebring. When he returned six months later, Schreckengost paid back his loans — a lucky event for the men from Gem Clay, since separate bank failures during theGreat Depression would have otherwise wiped them out.
Schreckengost taught industrial design at theCleveland Institute of Art (CIA) for more than 50 years and was a professor emeritus at CIA until his death. He was also the youngest faculty member ever at CIA (then known as the Cleveland School of the Arts). Schreckengost founded CIA's school of industrial design, the first of its kind in the country.[2] His notable students include Giuseppe Delena, chief designer at Ford Motor Co.; Larry Nagode, principal designer at Fisher-Price (father ofRyan Nagode);Joe Oros, head of the studio atFord that designed the 1965 Ford Mustang,Bill Saunders, Ryobi design director atTechtronic Industries,Sid Ramnarace, designer of the 5th generationFord Mustang andJerry Hirshberg, designer of theInfiniti J30 and the 1971 boat tailBuick Riviera.[3]
Schreckengost enlisted in theNavy at age 37 to help theAllies inWorld War II. He was flown on secret missions to Europe, where he used his modeling knowledge to help improve theradar used in theBattle of the Bulge. Later he helped designprosthetics for wounded soldiers. He retired from theNaval Reserves as acaptain. Schreckengost was also good friends with Cleveland safety directorEliot Ness.
The Viktor Schreckengost Foundation homepage indicates:
Every adult in America has ridden in, ridden on, drunk out of, stored their things in, eaten off of, been costumed in, mowed their lawn with, played on, lit the night with, viewed in a museum, cooled their room with, read about, printed with, sat on, placed a call with, enjoyed in a theater, hid their hooch in, collected, been awarded with, seen at a zoo, put their flowers in, hung on their wall, served punch from, delivered milk in, read something printed on, seen at theWorld's Fair, detected enemy combatants with, written about, had an arm or leg replaced with, graduated from, protected by, or seen at theWhite House something created by Viktor Schreckengost.[4]
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In 1930,Cowan Pottery received an order to create a "New-York-ish punch bowl" from Brownell-Lambertson Gallery on behalf of an undisclosed client. The project was assigned to their newest designer, Schreckengost, who would subsequently design theJazz Bowl forEleanor Roosevelt. She had special-ordered the item as a gift forFranklin D. Roosevelt to commemorate his second successful gubernatorial campaign.[5] The bowl's popularity led to Cowan Pottery producing a collection of Schreckengost'sNew York designs on a variety of plates and bowls, until thesgraffito technique that the design relied on became too difficult to mass produce and the designs were discontinued.[6]
He created (at the time) the largest freestanding ceramic sculpture in the world,Early Settler atLakewood High School inLakewood, Ohio. He designed bicycles manufactured byMurray bicycles for Murray andSears, Roebuck and Company, chiefly the Mercury bicycle which was advertised as the "official bicycle" of the1939 New York World's Fair where it was exhibited alongside some of his first sculptures.[7]
While working at Cleveland'sWhite Motor Company with engineer Ray Spiller, he designed the first truck with acab-over-engine configuration, a design in use to this day. And he created simple, modern dinnerware designs that became popular throughout the United States.
Rather unknown remains an ironic work which Schreckengost created around 1942: Apocalypse '42 was launched a few months after the bombing ofPearl Harbor. "The image of a frightened horse bearingHitler,Mussolini,Hirohito, and a figure of Death (in a German war uniform) across the globe was made to protest the rise of fascism. The drips of bloodred glaze around the horse's head and hooves were an unintentional effect of the firing process."[8] Schreckengost's statement for this piece of art, addressing theRome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis was: "I've always felt that you can say more with one vivid cartoon than you can with a lot of heavy words." A photo of the sculpture is used as material for history lessons in Germany.[9]
Another restored and "forgotten" sculpture was planned to be revived atCleveland Hopkins International Airport in late 2022[10] and finally reinstalled in November 2023.[11]
Schreckengost lived inCleveland Heights, Ohio, with his second wife Gene, and he celebrated his 100th birthday in June 2006. The Viktor Schreckengost Foundation planned more than 100 exhibits of his work, with at least one in each US state, to celebrate the milestone.[12] The exhibits opened in March 100 days before his 100th birthday. Schreckengost attended an exhibit inNew York City to open the shows. The night before his birthday he was honored at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights by a large and appreciative crowd. Also in 2006, Schreckengost was awarded theNational Medal of Arts, the highest honor the federal government can bestow on an American artist. He and the nine other winners were feted in an Oval Office ceremony byPresidentGeorge W. Bush and theFirst LadyLaura Bush on November 9, 2006.[13]
Schreckengost died on January 26, 2008. at age 101 while visiting family inTallahassee, Florida,[14] and was interred atLake View Cemetery in Cleveland.[15] He was predeceased by his three sisters, Pearl Eckleberry, Ruth Key, and Lucille Jackson, and his two brothers, Paul and Donald Schreckengost.
In 1976 a retrospective exhibition was organized by the Cleveland Institute of Art; then in 2000, theCleveland Museum of Art curated a more comprehensive retrospective of Schreckengost's work. Broad in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings. The centerpiece of the exhibit was theJazz Bowl. The industrial design portion included many of his famous designs such as safer and cleaner printing presses, economical pedal cars, cab-over-engine trucks, banana-seat bicycles, electric fans, and lawn chairs. Then in his 90s, Schreckengost made many personal appearances at the exhibit. In April 1991, Schreckengost traveled with Henry B. Adams, then curator of American Painting at the Cleveland Museum of Art,[16] toNorfolk, Virginia, to address theHampton Roads chapter of theAmerican Institute of Architects at age 93.
In the early 2020s, a selection of Schreckengost's dinnerware and design drawings were donated to theInternational Museum of Dinnerware Design by the Schreckengost family, the gallery available to view on the museum's website.[17]
In 2010, the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation signed a three-year contract to open a museum in theTower Press Building in theSt. Clair-Superior neighborhood ofCleveland, slated to open in the Spring of 2011.[18] As the Foundation struggled to organize, plans for the museum were pushed back indefinitely.[19] As of July 2014, much of the Schreckengost collection was being stored byCleveland State University.[20]
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