Jazz BowlCulminating Project for Aesthetic Education

By Lisa Titus

Jazz Bowl Photographs

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

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)

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

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.

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, instruments, alcohol and wine glasses. There was a possibility that because of the sensitive topic the bowl wouldn’t have been produced.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

Mind Mapping

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/