Every Adult in America has ridden in, drunk from, stored things in, played with, hung on the wall, eaten off, mowed the lawn with, 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 fl owers in, served punch from, fried their chicken in, been delivered milk from, read something printed on, seen at the World’s Fair, detected enemy combatants with, had an arm or leg replaced with, been protected by, or seen at the something created by Viktor Schreckengost.

Called an “American da Vinci” by so many that discover him, the breadth and depth of his work is staggering by any measure. A pioneer of modern American industrial design, prolifi c sculptor, painter, and ceramist, his works are sought by and held in major private and public collections across the . His New Yorker Jazz Bowl is considered an icon of the Art Deco era. Bicycles, pedal cars, dinnerware, lawn mowers—hundreds of consumer and commercial products—have improved and enriched all of our lives.

In 1931 Schreckengost created the fi rst academic industrial design department in America. For nearly 70 years, he trained generations of leading industrial designers. The impact on the country’s economy far exceeds $200 billion. His impact on the quality of our lives is immeasurable.

1 The Cowan Pottery

R. Guy Cowan was a 1908 alumnus of the New hired a few former students to work as full-time York School of Clay-working and Ceramics designers. at Alfred University. By 1913 he had built the network and financial backing necessary to start In 1930 Schreckengost was studying ceramics as what would become the Cowan Pottery, initially a post-graduate student in under Michael focusing on tile contracts. After being drafted Powolny when he accepted an employment offer into a World War I project to develop higher developed by Guy Cowan: upon returning to the quality charcoal for gas masks, Cowan returned US, he divided his time between working as a to his pottery with an eye toward mass production staff designer in the Cowan Pottery studio and of artistic wares. Several factors contributed serving as an instructor at the School to his success, including experimentation with of Art (now Cleveland Institute of Art). glaze and slip methods, innovations in casting and firing, and working in a market larger than By the end of the 20s, in addition to producing a few wealthy patrons. Cowan Pottery produced limited-edition sculptures by artists like A. a variety of figural flower holders, vases, bowls, Drexler Jacobson, F. Luis Mora, Paul Manship, ash trays, candlesticks, bookends, sculptures, and and Margaret Postgate, Cowan had taught and/or other art pottery objects that today are highly collaborated with many of the artists destined to sought-after pieces. become the “Who’s Who” of Cleveland artists in the early 20th century—including Russell Barnett The 1920s was a period of continuing expansion Aitken, Alexander Blazys, Paul Bogatay, Edris for Cowan’s pottery, with a move to a new Eckhardt, Thelma Frazier (Winter), Waylande facility in Rocky River and a burgeoning staff Gregory, Viktor Schreckengost, and Walter Sinz. that peaked over 40 in 1930, the same time that Though this was a period of intense creative a new display room was constructed. Also an collaboration, it was also Cowan’s darkest hour as instructor in ceramics at the Cleveland School the Depression took its toll on small businesses. In of Art, Cowan encouraged his most talented December 1930 the studio received a bankruptcy students to spend time on Saturdays at the order, and one year later, after focusing in 1930 pottery studying firsthand the workings of an art and 1931 on innovative attempts to repay the pottery manufactory. After their graduation, he firm’s creditors, the pottery closed its doors.

2 It was in the midst of this uncertainty that Schreckengost created his now famous icons of American Art Deco. The fi rst three New Yorker bowls were created in response to requests from . They were large—even for punch bowls—at about 17” across and 12” high. Inspired by his trips to Manhattan, Schreckengost scratched them with New York themes: soaring buildings and jazz motifs, ocean liners and café scenes. He fi nished them with a cobalt blue glaze to capture the “funny blue light in New York in 1931 when Cab Calloway’s band was playing.” He originally called them New Year’s Eve in New York, but Cowan retitled them New Yorker. Now known commonly as Jazz Bowls, these were a striking vision of in the Jazz Age.

The response to these fi rst bowls caused Schreckengost to create an entire Jazz Series, a collection of bowls and plates bearing icons that depict the excitement of the jazz culture—dancers, instruments, cigarettes, cocktail glasses, music notes, and bright lights—and fi nished in Egyptian Blue Crackle glaze. The series hit the market boasting at least 11 unique objects. Despite their taboo subject matter in an era of Prohibition, several went into production. Schreckengost would etch the design onto the bowls and plates and supervise the decorators who completed the fi ll work.

3 Into Obscurity And Rediscovery The letter suggests that, while Schreckengost had achieved national prominence and recognition, the Jazz Bowls were largely unknown. Schreckengost’s response provides one of the earliest accounts of the commission:

According to my records you have one of a series of bowls which I made for the Cowan Pottery Co., Rocky River, in 1930–31. . . A request was received from New York to submit While the Jazz Series had a strong initial a sketch for a Punch bowl which reception, over the course of the 1930s it showed a New York theme. Several faded from view as Schreckengost’s own sketches of mine were submitted and career eclipsed his early success. From time this one selected. Upon completion, we to time a bowl or a plate would show with received a very nice letter stating that others of Schreckengost’s creations, but by the wife of the New York Governor, 1940 the series had completely disappeared Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, was very from the public eye. well pleased with it. Schreckengost also describes to Kripke how On January 4, 1954, a lawyer in New York he made several more of these bowls with wrote to Schreckengost, reporting that he had variations in subject matter. just purchased a large punch bowl inscribed with Schreckengost’s name and the word “jazz” from a decorator shop in Boston.

I have noted that there are innumerable articles on your work in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature on the arts, and I have read those which appear to deal with punch bowls or vases but have not found any reference to this one. I should appreciate it if you can tell me whether this is a unique piece or whether you did several like it.1

1 Letter from Homer Kripke to Viktor Schreckengost, January 4, 1954, Viktor Schreckengost Foundation. Kripke’s letter is mistakenly dated 1953, as the subsequent letters between him and Viktor are all dated 4 1954. Viktor’s reply quoted below, also in the Foundation archives, is dated February 15, 1954. Into Obscurity And Rediscovery Kripke’s query constitutes the only known expression of interest in the Jazz Series for Holdings over forty years (see References on page 12). Then in the mid-1980s, with a rediscovery Below is the current listing of known Jazz Series holdings. of Art Deco, the Series began to be featured in museum exhibitions. In 1985, it was Bowls included in a major show on The Machine Age, organized for the Brooklyn Museum of Cocktails and Cigarettes (fl ared) . Art. Because no one knew the bowl’s title, it Firmament was nicknamed the Jazz Bowl; the term has . None known since been applied to the entire Series. New Yorker (parabolic) . Cleveland Museum of Art Within a decade the New Yorker became . Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum widely recognized as one of the masterpieces . Cowan Pottery Museum . High Museum of Art of the period—perhaps the most important . Schreckengost Collection ceramic ever created in America. Museums . 5 privately held and collectors alike aggressively compete to New Yorker (fl ared) acquire them. Since the 1980s, it has roughly . Art Institute of Chicago doubled in value every fi ve years. . Erie Art Museum . Museum of Fine Arts, Boston . Princeton University Art Museum . 4 privately held Night Club (fl ared) . None known Poor Man’s . Baltimore Museum of Art . Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University . Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Arts . Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art . 6 privately held . Green glaze—2 privately held . Yellow glaze—None known Rhythm in Blue (parabolic) . None known

Plates Cocktails . 1 privately held Cocktails and Cigarettes . None known Danse Moderne . Western Reserve Historical Society . Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Arts . Schreckengost collection . 3 privately held . Full-color version—Schreckengost collection New Yorker . 1 privately held

5 The Jazz Series

4 5

9 11

10 6

3

2 1

8

serial bowl known to exist today, Cocktails and Cigarettes (4), was executed on a fl ared bowl and received an award from the jury at the May Show of the Cleveland Museum of At least 11 unique combinations of Jazz Art in 1931. It was purchased from the show motifs were created. Because the original by S. Livingston Mather, ironically a direct parabolic bowls (1) tended to warp in the descendant of Cotton Mather. kiln, Cowan insisted that the New Yorker decoration be applied to a run of more fi re- Two additional punch bowl designs, Night friendly fl ared rim bowls (2). Interest became Club and Rhythm in Blue, appear in a February so strong that a cheaper, non-sgraffi to version 1933 issue of London Studio, along with a was also produced, duly nicknamed the Poor Poor Man’s. The caption identifi es them as Man’s punch bowl (3) by the Cowan artists. Schreckengost’s work. Night Club (5) was a Owing to the collapse of Cowan’s pottery, fl ared bowl with dancers matching those on only these three bowls, the Danse Moderne the Danse Moderne plate. Rhythm in Blue (6) plate (8) and the New Yorker plate (9) are was parabolic and featured a guitar and other believed to have been produced in multiples. musical instruments. To date, only this photo and two reference cards from Schreckengost’s In addition, at least four presumably unique records attest to the existence of these bowls. Jazz Bowls were created. The only non-

6 from Schreckengost’s molds, but the motif is not his. It is a unique Alice in Wonderland bowl signed by Cowan contemporary, Waylande Gregory, bearing the Egyptian Blue glaze, and executed in the same sgraffi to technique. Alice was a popular theme among 4 5 Cowan’s potters, so it is no surprise to fi nd her on one of Schreckengost’s bowls. (This bowl is held in a private collection.) 9 11 When Schreckengost decorated yet another of his parabolic bowls called The Hunt, (this time instead of sgraffi to work he chose underglaze slip decoration), he painted four accompanying plates and exhibited the fi ve together as a set, now owned by the 10 Smithsonian. This ensemble parallels his 6 practice of designing matching plates to go with his jazz-themed punch bowls. 3 A promotional fl yer for Cowan Pottery reproduces three of these plates: the New Yorker, Cocktails and Cigarettes, and Danse 2 Moderne. All three carry motifs that pair them 1 with the bowls: the New Yorker and Cocktails The card Schreckengost kept for Rhythm and Cigarettes plates with the bowls by the in Blue states that the bowl was exhibited same name, and Danse Moderne with Night at a one-man show in Akron in 1931 and 8 Club. While these pieces were featured in then “returned to Cowan Pottery—destiny advertisements (see page 5), Cowan seems unknown.” The reference card for Night Club to have folded before some of them were put states that the bowl was damaged but sold by a gallery in 1937 for a reduced price. The into production. London Studio photo is not an advertisement but a report of “Fine Craftsmanship” Indeed, with the exception of Danse and therefore does not mention sales Moderne, these plates have almost entirely information. disappeared. A Danse Moderne (8) plate is in the collection of the Western Reserve Firmament (7, not shown) is another unique Historical Society in Cleveland; several punch bowl recorded in Schreckengost’s are in private collections; and the Viktor fi les as an Egyptian Blue glaze with black. Schreckengost Foundation owns two—one Created in 1938, it was not a Cowan piece a full-color version with yellow, red, green, and one cannot be certain that it contained a blue and black. A private collector owns the Jazz motif; it was exhibited in the May Show only New Yorker (9) plate known (though that year and sold through the Cleveland photos demonstrate that at least two were Museum of Art, but no photo exists of it and its present location is unknown. Its title made); he bought it on eBay. Cocktails and suggests it may have featured a design of Cigarettes (10) is known only from photos. planets similar to that found on the interior of A single example of a fourth plate, Cocktails several Jazz Bowls. (11), is also known to exist; it contains cocktail glasses such that it could be paired There is one more bowl of interest to Jazz with any of the bowls. Cowan offered these Bowl connoisseurs—a parabolic shape cast plates for $15 each.

7 The Centennial Series When Schreckengost went to the Cleveland From the beginning, mastering the sgraffi to Museum of Art to be photographed prior to technique was viewed as the most critical his 2000-2001 retrospective, the museum’s element of the project’s success. Heather New Yorker was being unpacked for display. McClellan, the project lead, has worked Schreckengost reached out to touch the bowl carefully with Schreckengost, discussing but his hand was stopped by a museum staff tools, techniques, and prototypes to recapture member who said, “You made the bowl, his depth and detail. Much as Schreckengost but you may not touch it.” Schreckengost did in 1931, McClellan created several designed these pieces to be beautiful and pieces herself; then, after careful review with useful—not to be cloistered and inaccessible. Schreckengost, she moved to the role of artistic And yet, ironically, because of their unique director, scratching the designs and carefully contribution to American art, these pieces are training decorators to fi nish the fi ll work. locked up behind glass and cannot be touched, not even by his own hand. Collectors also rue From mold recreation and underbody this situation. composition to glaze reformulation and fi ring details, the process of creating the new To resolve this tension and increase production line has encountered most of accessibility, Schreckengost is once again the challenges Schreckengost did 75 years overseeing a production of the Jazz Series, ago. With his oversight and the advantages beginning with the parabolic New Yorker, and of current chemistry and technology, those continuing with the fl ared bowls and the plates. challenges have been met. Each object He has supervised much of the work himself, continues the Schreckengost tradition of visiting the studio to fi ne-tune the process and unique and beautiful craftsmanship. Each critiquing the scratchwork of individual bowls has also been serial numbered and entered in to ensure they are faithful to his concepts—in the Schreckengost database for provenance some cases varying from any known versions tracking. These bowls and plates constitute the of the designs. Centennial Edition Jazz Series—a celebration of Schreckengost’s 100th birthday and the 75th anniversary of the fi rst Jazz Series. There are 100 pieces in each set.

8 9 The Schreckengost Ceramic Legacy Though Schreckengost’s Jazz Bowl was a was sought by the Navy, for whom he worked career launching piece, placed in the context of on emerging radar technology and advances in his ceramics achievements before and after, it is dimensional aerial map-making. simply another work from his hand. Growing up in Ohio’s pottery belt, he had modeled his own After WWII, Schreckengost returned to his toys in clay as a child and sold mass produced roots and, in the process, transformed American ceramic wares through Gem Clay Forming ceramics. His mid-century slab form sculptures, Co. as a high school student. Schreckengost’s vessels that were carved instead of thrown experience with Cowan and his intense training or modeled, proved that pottery needn’t be in Vienna prepared him to make an impact that functional but could stand alone as appealing would change the face of American ceramics in sculptural forms. The slab form sculptures, the 20th Century. often taking their inspiration from gourds, shells and other natural shapes, not only introduced a At the request of Walter Dorwin Teague, new technique for the potter—that of cutting Schreckengost exhibited a series of four away clay to form sculpture—but also elevated sculpted heads in the American Pavilion of the ceramics from a craft to a fine art form. Using 1939 New York World’s Fair. The Elements, hewn and modeling techniques in the large, each in different colors of clay, consisted of Schreckengost created monumental, 32-ton four stylized heads: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. structural terra cotta sculptures that still delight During World War II, his expertise as a sculptor visitors of the Cleveland Zoo. photo by Herb Ascherman photo by Herb 10 “The best of their age…boldly designed and exquisitely executed.” - John Axelrod Visual Jazz Thematically, the Jazz Series belongs within the context of Schreckengost’s life- long interest in jazz music. Schreckengost witnessed the early years and hey day of this American art form first-hand. As a child he listened to some of the earliest jazz recordings on his sister’s phonograph; in high school he performed with the Ken Webb Band playing E-flat alto and B-flat tenor sax and clarinet; and as an art student in Cleveland he regularly visited Manhattan, where he listened to Cab Calloway. Though seriously considered, Schreckengost decided against music as a career because the hours were not to his liking.

It is no surprise, then, that jazz (along with its musical relatives rock and gospel) appear repeatedly as themes in Schreckengost’s other work. About the same time he created the Jazz Series, for example, he painted a series of watercolors using what one might term a jazz style—free spirited, improvisational, and punctuated with “jazz licks” of color. These portray a collection of performers, including several jazz musicians, dancers and singers. Throughout his life, Schreckengost created paintings and watercolors of musical instruments, such as Big City Jazz, Rock Jazz Bass, Rhapsody (In the Mood), Reeds, and Baritone in Brass. Schreckengost also manifested his musical passion through sculpture, including Rhythm of the Soil and Oh Lord. He portrayed biblical characters as black to evoke a southern gospel feeling as in Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego. His pedal cars, bicycles, and other early design work were adorned with the design elements (like speed whiskers) that were utilized extensively during the Art Deco/Jazz era.

“The best of their age…boldly designed and exquisitely executed.” - John Axelrod 11 References

The following is a list of prominent citations of objects within Schreckengost’s Jazz Series.

Crockery and Glass Journal, December 1930 Cowan Pottery, Catalogue, 1931 (illustrates Cocktails and Cigarettes punch bowl) “Statement of the Jury,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 5, May 1931, not paginated. Jurors were Henry E. Schnakenberg, Gertrude Herdle, and John Sloan “Youthful Designer Inherited His Taste for Art,” Cleveland News, November 2, 1931 “Art Alliance Dinner for Cleveland Artist,” The Youngstown Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio, Sunday, December 4, 1932 “Fine Craftsmanship,” London Studio, February 1933, p. 131 “Viktor Schreckengost of Ohio” (a transcribed conversation). The Studio Potter 2:1 (December 1982), p. 74–79 . Eva Weber, Art Deco in America, Exeter Books, New York, 1985 Richard Guy Wilson and Dianne H. Pilgrim, The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941, The Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1988 Elaine Levin, The History of American Ceramics, 1607 to the Present: From Pipkins and Bean Pots to Contemporary Forms, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1988 Cara Greenberg, “Metro,” Metropolitan Home, November 1989 (Poor Man’s Bowl illustrated in color) Sharon Pinzone, “Rocky River’s Lost Colony of Artists,” Avenues (Cleveland), December 1989 John Russell, “The Cooper-Hewitt Displays More of its Design Trove,” , Friday, September 6, 1991, The Living Arts, B1 Derek Ostergard, Art Deco Masterpieces, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1991 (one of only two American works included) Jonathan Fairbanks, et. al., Collecting American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, 1971–1991, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1991 Postcard, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1991 Henry Hawley, “Cleveland’s Cowan Pottery,” Western Reserve Antiques Show, 1993 Christina Corsiglia, “Viktor Schreckengost: Evolution of a Cleveland Ceramist,” Cleveland as a Center of Regional American Art. Proceedings of Symposium of the Cleveland Artists’ Foundation, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, Nov 13–14, 1993, p. 100–112. Leslie Pina, Pottery, Modern Wares 1900–1960, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. Atglen, Pennsylvania, 1994 American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts. Harvard Art Museums Gallery Series, No. 9. Exhibition Catalogue, October 1–December 30, 1994 Tim and Jamie Saloff, The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Cowan Pottery, Identification and Values, Collector Books, A Division of Schroeder Publishing Co., Inc. Paducah, Kentucky, 1994 Karen Lucic, “Seeing Through Surfaces: American Craft as Material Culture,” in Craft in the Machine Age, 1920–1945, edited by Janet Kardon, New York Abrams and the American Craft Museum, 1995 Christine Temin, “Fogg’s Matchmaking Recasts Art History,” The Boston Globe, September 1, 1995, p.101. Reviews exhibition The Persistence of Memory: Change and Continuity in America’s Cultures at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Laura E. Bronson, “Cross Country,” Country Living, November 1995 Dennis W. Griffith, Curator, The Spirit of Cleveland: Visual Arts Recipients of the Cleveland Arts Prize, 1961–1995 Karen McCready and , Art Deco and Modernist Ceramics, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1995 20th Century Sale, February 12, 1995, Treadway Gallery, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio William Robinson and David Steinberg, Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796–1946, The Cleveland Museum of Art, distributed by Ohio University Press, 1996 Michael Tambini, The Look of the Century, DK Publishing, New York, 1996 (reproduced twice). Mark Bassett and Victoria Naumann, Cowan Pottery and the Cleveland School, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., Atglen, Pennsylvania, 1997 , “In Conversation: Viktor Schreckengost/William Daley,” American Craft, June–July 1997 “Reflections on Art and Culture: A Series of Lectures and Gallery Talks” (mailer), The High Museum of Art, February 1998 Judith Miller, ed, Miller’s Antiques Encyclopedia, Reed Consumer Books, Ltd, London, 1998 Henry Adams, Viktor Schreckengost and 20th-Century Design, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Henry Adams, “Cocktails and Cigarettes,” member’s magazine, Cleveland Museum of Art, December 2000 Barbara Haskell, The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–1950, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in association with W. W. Norton & Company; New York, London 1999 (the only ceramic included) Mark Favermann, “Viktor Schreckengost: An American Design Giant,” The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles (January 2001), p. 27–29 Paul Makovsky, “Pedal to the Metal,” excerpt from “Nine over Ninety,” Metropolis Magazine, special issue, January 2001, p. 80–83 Steven Harrison, “The New Yorker Jazz Bowl.” The High Museum of Art: Selected works from the collection, edited by Lori Cavagnaro, 2005, p. 77. Henry Adams, “Viktor Schreckengost at 99,” Modernism Magazine, vol. 8, no. 3, Fall 2005, p. 72–83. 12