Comments on: American da Vinci

American da Vinci

tellurian — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:02:27 -0800

Viktor Schreckengost who died last year at the grand age of 101, was regarded by some as the father of industrial design. Every adult in America has ridden in, ridden on, drunk out of, stored their things in, eaten off of, been costumed in, etc... and there is no going past his gorgeous pedal cars. Some of his work can also be seen online at The Cleveland Museum of Art.

By: pjern

pjern — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:11:39 -0800

oh, wow. I had that pedal tractor when I was about 6 years old...

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:35:04 -0800

I want this bike.

By: alexei

alexei — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:56:03 -0800

His name is terrifying.

By: yonation

yonation — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:05:05 -0800

as terrifying as this?

By: Faze

Faze — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:07:19 -0800

An old-timer who knew him well back in the 1940s told me that the young Viktor Shreckengost was the very picture of the dashing, successful artist: handsome, well-dressed, grinning with a pipe clenched in his teeth. But very friendly and approachable. His students idolized him. By the time I met Shreck, he was old indeed (although not as old as he would become), and still a few years shy of his re-discovery (which was led by no less than Henry Adams, a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and a direct descendent the very Adams family everyone's now watching on HBO). At that time, in fact, someone I knew had one of Shreck's now-famous Jazz Bowls, and so little was it valued, that he used it as an umbrella stand in the vestibule of his Cleveland Heights home...

By: MaryDellamorte

MaryDellamorte — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:51:51 -0800

Ah, the good ol' Spaceliner. It was actually first issued in '64, not '65. My two '64 Spaceliners are the coolest bicycles I've ever owned even though they are heavy and a bitch to ride.

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:48:31 -0800

Recently in Cleveland there was a show on the local NPR affiliate that talked about his work and how, when he went to art school, there was an expectation he'd become a ceramics artist because he was from a town that's very well known for ceramics. They said he'd initially rebelled against the thought (I don't blame him -- I'm from a town that's known for making sandstone grindstones, but you don't see me doing that), but once he accepted it, started doing it, and furthered his studies with some of the great modernist Viennese ceramics teachers of the last century, he went on to be one of the most amazing ceramics artists ever. (In addition to all the other cool stuff he did -- ditto the bike -- I want one!)

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:34:33 -0800

What's this 'Internal Server Error' rubbish?

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:12:06 -0800

Thanks for the pointer bitter-girl.com. For others, the show is here.