Viktor Schreckengost created a Jazz Bowl in 1930-1931 while working for Cowan Pottery during the Great Depression and Prohibition era. The blue crackle glaze bowl depicts scenes from New York City like Radio City Music Hall and incorporates images of jazz music, dancing, and alcohol. Although controversial at the time due to Prohibition, Eleanor Roosevelt commissioned three bowls with this design after the first bowl was made. The bowl aimed to make a political statement through its images and use of a bright blue glaze inspired by Egyptian artifacts.

1. Jazz Bowl
Culminating Project for Aesthetic Education
By Lisa Titus

2. Jazz Bowl Photographs

10. Noticings
 The bowl seemed as though it took a long time to make
 It didn’t seem like it would have been used
 The blue seemed to burst from the bowl
 The drawings seemed to have a scratch pattern
 There were clocks
 A city skyline with stars (maybe nighttime)
 Bottles of alcohol

11. Noticings con’t
 Bubbles
 Maracas’
 Dice or dominoes
 Champagne glass and wine glasses
 Possibly a table viewed from above
 Street lights emanating light
 People’s heads with no bodies (probably men)

12. Noticing’s con’t
 It seems like it should have a rough surface because of
the scratching, but the glaze would make it smooth.
 Probably textured
 Follies marquee
 Clock in 3:30 or 6:15
 Ship in background
 Clouds
 Noisy if the scene was in real life

13. Cultural Context
 The bowls depict
dancers, instruments, cigarettes, cocktail glasses, music
notes, bright lights – and coated in Egyptian Blue
Crackle glaze.
 He picked the blue color because he said it reminded
him of the radiance from blue turquoise beads found in
Tutankhamen’s tomb.
 He also explained that the strange blue color
illuminated the bowl and was similar to the night sky in
New York City.

14. Social Connection
 Viktor Schreckengost created
the jazz bowl between 1930-
1931 in Ohio. The company he
worked for was experiencing
difficulty because of the Great
Depression. It was also at the
end of the Prohibition Era.
Schreckengost took this
opportunity to depict some anti-
prohibition pictures on his
piece. There were a series of
bowls created with some having
drawings of
cigarettes, gambling, instrument
s, alcohol and wine glasses.
There was a possibility that
because of the sensitive topic
the bowl wouldn’t have been
produced.

15. Historical Context
 The report is that Schreckengost was working for Cowan
Potter Company in 1930 and didn’t have anything to do.
He pulled a letter of a woman wanting a New York
themed punch bowl. He had visited New York City and
designed the bowl from his travels around Christmas.
Viktor was impressed with the jazz theme of Radio City
Music Hall and created the drawings around that theme.
 He was also impressed with the Cotton Club in Harlem
where he heard Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington
perform. This is the reason the last thing he etched out
on the piece was a drum with the word “Jazz” carved in
it.

16. Historical Context
 “Viktor Schreckengost created his now famous icons of
American Art Deco, the Jazz Series, at Cowan Pottery
located in Rocky River, Ohio in 1930-31, just as the
company was folding under the pressure of the Great
Depression. The first three Jazz Bowls – all bearing the
New Yorker design – were commissioned by Eleanor
Roosevelt in celebration of her husband's reelection as
governor of New York.”-
http://www.viktorsjazzbowl.com/history.html

17. Historical Context
 Viktor Schreckengost came from a family of potters. He
studied at the Cleveland School of Art and trained in
Vienna. In 1930 he returned to the U.S. to teach at the
school. He taught in Cleveland while he enjoyed a 70
year career as an artist. The school is now called the
Cleveland Institute of Art where he founded the
industrial design program and taught for over 50 years.
He lived in Cleveland Heights until his death at age 101
in 2008.

18. Questions
 How was the vase created with such a bright blue and
why doesn’t it lose its’ luster?
 Why did the artist incorporate so many different scenes
instead of using just one?
 If the artist had known who it was for would he have
changed his design?
 Why did he feel a need to create a new form of
decorating a piece?

19. Personal Connection
 When I first saw this piece in the Erie Art Museum it
spoke to me. I found myself drawn to it and went back
to see it five different times. I could almost hear the
music playing from the scene even though it wasn’t a
real scene. Every time I looked at the bowl I saw
something different and something more and more
interesting. The closer you look the more you can tell
the scratching of glaze must have been painstaking. I
can appreciate the way Viktor made a political
statement without knowing. I found it interesting that
Viktor came upon the project by chance.

20. Personal Connection con’t
 Viktor pulled the job from the hopper and only knew
that a woman had ordered a punch bowl with a New
York theme. Later after the bowl was completed, that
woman ordered three more bowls. It was then that
Viktor found out the patron was Eleanor Roosevelt and
the bowls were to celebrate her husbands re-election as
governor. I also found out that at one point years later
Viktor went to touch one of his bowls while it was in a
museum, he was quickly told that this was not allowed.
He decided to make a series of the jazz collection to be
enjoyed and used by all people. This is a foreign
concept to me since the entire semester we have been
taught that art should be experienced to be enjoyed.

21. Curriculum Connection
 Booth talks about how good writing will make people
feel the way the writer feels, but I think this piece of
art does the same thing. Booth also states that people
have an immediate and deeper connection if they are
willing to explore more. I know it may not seem logical
but this bowl called to me in the museum. I could feel
the excitement and repression at the same time. I
understood the sense of defiance for rules that seem to
make no sense while also expressing a need to have fun.
This artwork seems to sing without having music or a
voice.

22. Line of Inquiry
 Pedagogical:
 How did this piece of art make a political statement to
its generation while still invoking the beauty of its time
and is this work truly an expression of the positive and
negative feelings of the 1930s?
Aesthetic:
 Why did the artist feel the need to create a new way to
decorate pottery when so many others already existed
and how does this piece use color and shading to change
the line of sight and invoke movement?

23. Key Ideas
 Art as a political statement
 Art as a soap box
 Self-expression
 Creating shadow and texture through design
 Hidden details
 Creating sound and movement through picture
arrangement

24. Activity Ideas
 Music- Create a dance using jazz music from the
era, Count Baise, Louis Armstrong.
 Art- Use crayon to create a sgraffiti drawing by
scribbling two colors and scratching to make a picture
by revealing the color underneath.
 Science- Create punch bowl form using clay and wire
that will be able to hold a liquid
 Social Studies – Research prohibition and Eleanor
Roosevelt, compare and contrast the era with today.

25. Mind Mapping

26. Resources
 http://www.ceramicstoday.com/potw/schreckengost.ht
m
 http://www.noalcohol.us/noalcohol/resources/theprohi
bition.phtml
 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/art/2011/11/an-art-
deco-masterpiece-for-eleanor-roosevelt/
 www.viktorsjazzbowl.com/history.html
 https://bubbl.us/