CLEVELAND, Ohio — A beloved mid-century public art installation that had spent decades moldering in city storage is back on view at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
City officials held a brief celebratory unveiling Friday for “Time and Space,” a multi-part sculpture by the acclaimed artist and industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, who died in 2008 at age 101.
The sculpture, made of aluminum and steel, includes elements characterizing the sun, earth and moon, plus 12 signs of the zodiac. It has been installed on a wall overlooking the center of the airport’s departure level, opposite escalators and staircases leading to the airport’s garage and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s Red Line.
A crowd of reporters, television news crews and well-wishers gathered at the spot Friday to watch the ceremony, as departing passengers hurried back and forth in front of a small stage from which officials spoke. Carrying backpacks or wheeling luggage, some of the passersby dipped their heads to avoid blocking the TV cameras.
“We are proud to have served as the original home of this fantastic, one-of-a-kind sculpture, which hasn’t been publicly viewable for nearly 25 years,” Bryant Francis, the city’s director of Port Control, said during the ceremony. “CLE is honored to once again exhibit this extravagant piece,” he added. “Not only is it an ingredient of Cleveland’s history, it provides insight to future travel, as the airport approaches its 100th anniversary in 2025.”
Bryan Francis, Cleveland's recently appointed director of Port Control, spoke at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Friday, Nov. 17 during the unveiling of a restored and reinstalled mid-century masterpiece by Cleveland industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost.Steven Litt, cleveland.com
Schreckengost, famous for having designed pedal cars beloved by generations of post-World War II children, taught for decades at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he founded the department of industrial design.
Schreckengost’s works in Cleveland include the Mammoth and Mastodon sculptures originally created for the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which were reinstalled at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 2015.
Cleveland art historian Henry Adams, who organized a retrospective of Schreckengost’s art and design at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2000, called Schreckengost an “American da Vinci.”
The 1955 Pachyderm Sculptures by Cleveland artist Viktor Schreckengost, originally commissioned for the Cleveland Metropark Zoo, were recently reinstalled at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Schreckengost taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art when Robert Fillous, creator of the "Tree of Knowledge' sculpture in Berea, was a student there.Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
The airport commissioned Schreckengost in 1955 to design the Time and Space installation, which was intended to evoke time-honored practice of navigating by the stars. He collaborated with Rose Ironworks on the assignment.
The piece was removed during a 1990 renovation and placed into storage. After rediscovering it, the airport’s art department and the city’s Art Preservation Committee made plans to reinstall it at the airport’s central checkpoint.
City Council approved a $60,000 contract with the nonprofit Intermuseum Conservation Association in 2015 to restore the artwork. Last year, Council appropriated $160,000 to have it reinstalled.
The unveiling Friday included a videotaped greeting from Gene Schreckengost, the designer’s widow.
Dan Cuffaro, the chair of industrial design at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and a onetime student of Schreckengost, said his mentor bucked the minimalist, reductive tendencies of 20th-century modernism.
“His work was infused with emotion and beauty,” he said, adding it was appropriate that the piece can once again be enjoyed by travelers embarking from Cleveland.
“This seems like the appropriate piece to be in this place, greeting people as they begin a new adventure,” he said.