Viktor Schreckengost
Centennial Exhibition
Frame Shop Gallery
March 21 through June 30, 2006

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This exhibit of the work of legendary 20th century industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost is one of 100 simultaneous shows organized by the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation around the country to celebrate Schreckengost’s 100th birthday this summer. Schreckengost was one of this country’s first industrial designers, and it has been estimated that every living person in the U.S., has used one of Schreckengost’s or his students’ designs. Schreckengost’s industrial designs include bicycles, pedal cars, furniture, electronics, vehicles, military radar and ceramics.

Victor Schreckengost designed “Manhattan”, the first modern dinnerware for mass production in the U.S., for American Limoges in 1935. The line was an immediate success. It was stylish, practical and affordable. He departed from the fussy Victorian model, creating multi-purpose dishes with pure, unified lines in the Modern idiom and bold patterns informed by his background as a painter. In 1930 he was commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt to create his Jazz Bowl, an Art Deco icon and centerpiece of the show from the Art Museum’s permanent collection. Schreckengost advocated that ceramics be valued for beauty and not just their utility, and said, “Pottery need not be functional but should be sculpturally fine enough to justify its existence by beauty of form alone.”

Throughout his career, Schreckengost adhered to his credo that good design be available to all. In addition to his work in ceramics, Schreckengost designed the first-cab-over engine truck for Cleveland’s White Motor Company with engineer Ray Spiller. He designed the Mercury Bicycle which was displayed at the 1939 World's Fair; over 100 million Mercury bikes were sold. He also worked for Sears and General Electric among other others.

The timing of this exhibit is serendipitous for the Erie Art Museum. It coincides with the Museum’s show of designs by Eva Zeisel, who is also one of the first and most important American designers, also still living and also turning 100 this year. These two designers were among an influential few who created a new paradigm for domestic design. Together, the exhibits are a testimony to a revolution in industrial design that changed the tastes of Americans with good, affordable modernist design, the impact of which has lasted through the 20th century into the 21st.