VIKTOR SCHRECKENGOST
2006 HONOREE
Modern Design
Combining a fine artist's sensibility with true understanding of manufacturing and the cost of producing goods for the mass market, Viktor Schreckengost's contribution to American design is extraordinary. His diverse range of works spans the 20th Century and four primary areas of industrial design: ceramics, wheeled steel products, lighting devices and printing equipment.
Born in 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, a commercial pottery town, Schreckengost designed ceramics as a teenager and went on to study at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) from 1925-1929. Initially intending to pursue a degree in cartooning, he ultimately reverted to ceramics. In 1929, an international ceramics arts exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art exposed Schreckengost to modern Viennese pottery, in particular the work of Michael Powolny. The following year, he enrolled in the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna where he studied under Powolny and absorbed the design theories of the Wiener Werkstatte.
On his return to Cleveland in late 1930, Schreckengost began teaching at the CIA and working at the Cowan Pottery under his former teacher, Guy Cowan. Cowan randomly assigned Schreckengost a request from the Brownell-Lambertson Gallery of New York for a punch bowl with a New York theme.
Schreckengost created the Jazz Bowl, a masterpiece of American Art Deco to celebrate the modern popular culture of New York, drawing on his recent visit to the Cotton Club, Radio City Music Hall and the lights of Times Square. Using sgraffito, he etched through a black coating over porcelain and finished it with an electric blue copper-cobalt glaze. The resulting blue and black glow of the Jazz Bowl is a dynamic statement on modern life. Only after he had completed the bowl did Schreckengost discover that it had been requested by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Schreckengost's innovations in industrial design include the first cab-over-engine truck, which he designed in 1932 with engineer Ray Spiller for the White Motor Company. During this same period, he designed Econo-Rim, a line of modern restaurant ware, for Onandaga Pottery in Syracuse, NY. For American Limoges of Sebring, Ohio, he designed the first modern mass-produced dinnerware, Americana. His Manhattan pattern for American Limoges, released in 1935, is considered one of the most distinguished modern American dinnerware lines. He continued to create numerous successful patterns, including Flower Shop, Triumph, and Jiffy Ware.
Schreckengost pursued both his art and industrial design simultaneously throughout his career. His fine art ceramics were extensively exhibited both nationally and internationally throughout the 1930's. His Four Elements (Air, Earth, Fire and Water), a series of four female faces, were commissioned for the 1939 World's Fair in New York, where they were displayed just outside the state dining room.
During the 1940's Schreckengost carved sculptural handmade pottery vessels from slabs of clay, which broke away from the limitations of the potter's wheel and explored the unique capabilities of clay. He also used ceramic sculpture to protest fascism: his work, Apocalypse '42, shows the figure of death in a German uniform, accompanied by Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini.
In 1950, he was commissioned by the Cleveland Zoo to design and build enormous ceramic panels depicting extinct and endangered birds throughout the ages for the Bird Building. In 1954, he created a monumental wall relief, The Early Settler, for Lakewood High School. And in 1956, he designed the exterior wall of the Pachyderm Building of the Cleveland Zoo with a full-scale relief of mastodons and mammoths.
Throughout his life he also painted watercolors, winning prizes annually from 1946-1958. In 1948, he held a one-man show of watercolors at the Town and Country Gallery, Cleveland. Later, a series of watercolors painted between 1975 and 1987 depict New York scenes, including Light on the River and Big City Jazz.
Schreckengost's work with bicycles spans decades. He began designing and streamlining the production of bicycles and toy pedal cars for the Murray Ohio Company at the end of the 1930's, His 1938 Champion Pedal Car was a breakthrough: it was stamped out of a single piece of metal and folded into shape, reducing the cost and making it available to the middle class market. The ingeniously designed Murray Mercury Bicycle, with a motorcycle look and chrome sculptural elements for the head, the tank and chain guard, was exhibited at the New York World's Fair of 1939.
Schreckengost served as Murray Ohio's lead designer until 1972. Under his leadership, Murray became the world's largest bicycle manufacturer, designing bikes for over 100 different labels, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Western Auto. His bicycle designs refined elements such as the lights, tire size and visual lines. Schreckengost also revolutionized production by standardizing parts for each size bicycle, single-step frame welding and knockdown bicycle construction, which reduced the size of the packing carton. His notable bicycle designs include the JC Higgins of 1948, the Fleetline Series, the 1965 Sears Spaceliner, the 1967 Mark II Eliminator drag bike, and the Campus Compact Bicycle of 1968.
The Pursuit Plane of 1941, a pedal plane, was an immediate hit with both children and adults. Also in 1941, Schreckengost designed an ergonomic lawn chair for Sears that could be made with just two pieces of stamped steel. Other product designs include the ÒMurray-Go-RoundÓ baby walker; a flat face pedal car (1959) that could be adapted to multiple styles: the Speedway Pace Car, Fire Chief, and Circus Car; the Mercury Super De-Luxe 4 Ball Bearing Wagon; and mobile electric fans sold by Sears. In 1969-1970, Schreckengost turned his attention to safe riding lawn mowers, creating a tractor type and a golf cart type.
His work with bat-wing headlights for the JC Higgins bicycle led Schreckengost to design flashlights for Delta Electric and other lighting for the Holophane Company and for General Electric.
During World War II, Schreckengost joined the US Navy, where he was recruited to develop a system for radar recognition that won him the Secretary of the Navy's commendation.
Even while directing the Murray Ohio design department, Schreckengost continued to innovate in other industries. In 1938, Schreckengost improved printing presses for the Chandler Harris Company, making them safer to operate and cleaner. After the war, his work designing presses of all types and other printing equipment for the Harris-Seybold Company dramatically changed the printing industry.
Throughout his distinguished career, Schreckengost remained on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he founded industrial design program in 1933, and which became one of the most important design programs in the U.S. As a teacher, his legacy is lasting, and he influenced many designers, including the creators of the Ford Mustang, the Little Tykes playhouses and plastic cars, and the Crest Spin toothbrush.