Viktor Schreckengost

Biography to Display:

1906Born Sebring, Ohio

2008Died Tallahassee, Florida

EDUCATION

1924-1929Cleveland School of the Arts (now the Cleveland Institute of Art), Cleveland, Ohio

1929-1930Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna, Austria

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1930-1981(?)Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

BIOGRAPHY

Viktor Schreckengost is known for designing and creating functional pieces and sculpture.

After college Viktor Schreckengost visited world-renowned ceramic centers in Europe and northern Africa, this trip influenced the animal sculptures he created years later. His training as an artist and ceramist gave him the skills needed to move through the fields of art, design, and craft. In 1933 Schreckengost founded the school of Industrial Design at Cleveland Institute of Design, the first of its kind in the United States

Schreckengost created a number of sculptures but is best known for his 1930 ceramic work, the Jazz Bowl. Designed by Schreckengost for Cowan Pottery Studio, the punch bowl depicts imagery of New York's Jazz age capturing the zeitgeist of the era. Schreckengost's works in clay reflect the art deco style popular in the 1930s visible in the figurative sculptures he made after his tenure at Cowan Pottery.

His talents as a sculptor and a potter made him a natural to design forward-looking mid-20th-century China. He worked for Limoges China, in his hometown of Sebring, Ohio, designing industrially produced fine china.

In addition to ceramic work, Schreckengost is known as an industrial designer and for his designs that include bicycles, lawn mowers, food storage containers, dinnerware, and children’s toys.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Public Collections to Display:

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography to Display:

Adams, Henry. Viktor Schreckengost: American DaVinci. Windsor, Connecticut: Tide-Mark Press, 2006.

_____, Henry, and Viktor Schreckengost. Viktor Schreckengost and 20th Century Design. New York, New York: Henry B. Abrams, Inc., with Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

Clark, Garth. American Ceramics: 1876 to the Present. New York, New York: Abbeville Publishers, 1987.

Levin, Elaine. The History of American Ceramics from Pipkins and Bean Pots to Contemporary Forms. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1988.

Perry, Barbara. American Ceramics: The Collection of Everson Museum of Art. New York, New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1989.

Typical Marks