ATTLEBORO -- It's estimated that every living adult in the United States has used products designed by the late artist and industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost or one of his students.

FSchreckengost was legendary for his influence on a dizzying array of consumer and industrial products, from commercially produced dinnerware to bicycles and cab-over-engine trucks - even the Corvette automobile. Now the Ohio-born artist and innovator will be memorialized in only the second major exhibition of his work from March 21-May 16 at the Attleboro Arts Museum.

The museum began planning a retrospective of Schreckengost's work months before the artist's death Jan. 26 at the age of 101. But museum officials said he heartily endorsed the exhibition, titled "The Viktor Schreckengost Legacy Exhibition." It will include a number of original works and products that resulted from his influence or his students, including a 2009 Chevrolet Corvette.

The official opening will be 7-9 p.m. Friday, March 28, and Schreckengost's widow Gene is scheduled to attend.

The exhibition is only the second time the artist's extensive collection of works has been exhibited. It will highlight the best examples of how his innovative approaches and designs revolutionized industries and became icons that helped define an era. Schreckengost's gift was his ability to merge beauty and elegance with function, and do so in a way that enabled products to be mass produced and economically available to everyone. Many of his designs are experiencing a new popularity as retro fever takes hold of the Baby Boom generation.

There was hardly a product line Schreckengost didn't touch or influence, and because of his remarkable spectrum of prolific, eclectic, creativity that spanned 70 years, he is described as the Father of Industrial Design and America's own Leonardo da Vinci.

"Our lead curator, Chuck Tramontana was one of Viktor's former students. Through the years they developed a very strong friendship," said Mim Brooks Fawcett, executive director of the Attleboro Arts Museum. "Thanks to their conversations about this retrospective, we are able to create an exhibit that will be intimate and reflective of Viktor's charm, design sensibility and intelligence. We're all saddened by his death, and had been looking forward to having Viktor celebrate with us at the exhibition's opening."

The exhibition will feature an extensive and significant, collection of original sculptures, paintings and product designs. His students have also been invited to participate as living symbols of the extent to which this remarkable, humble man has set the tone for good design in popular culture.

Art and items on display will include Schreckengost original watercolors, a Supre DeLuxe 4-Ball Bearing Red Wagon, a vintage Murray bicycle, a Beverly Hills-styled lawn chair and a collection of Aamerican Limoges Jiffy Ware dishes as well as a brand new 2009 Corvette SS.

The son of a commercial potter in Sebring, Ohio, Schreckengost learned sculpting in clay from his father. In the 1920s he enrolled at the Cleveland School of Art to study cartooning. But he decided to change his focus to ceramics instead. After graduation in 1929 he continued his studies in Vienna, Austria, where his love of the emerging art form of jazz led him to the saxophone. He quickly built a reputation in the art of music as well.

Returning to America as the youngest faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Art, he rolled up a number of awards for ceramics. By the 1930s, Schreckengost began to pursue his interest in industrial design and collaborated with Cleveland's White Motor Co. to design the first cab-over-engine truck.

His work, but not his creativity, was interrupted by WWII during which he contributed to the Allied war effort by developing a system for radar recognition that won him a commendation from the Secretary of the Navy. After the war, he resumed his industrial design career creating products for Sears, General Electric and others. He retired in 1972.

Planned gallery talks about the life of Viktor Schreckengost include Kirk Bennion, one of the artist's students, who is now chief designer of the Corvette Design Studio at General Motors. In a presentation on Sunday, March 29, Bennion will discuss Viktor's influence on the studio and preview an actual model of the 2009 Corvette SS at the exhibit.

For more information about the amazing life and innovation of Viktor Schreckengost, please visit http://www.viktorschreckengost.org. Schreckengost exhibition highlights

F0IL0"The Viktor Schreckengost Legacy Exhibition", at the Attleboro Arts Museum will feature an extensive and significant collection of original sculptures, paintings and product designs. His students have also been invited to participate as living symbols of the extent to which Schreckengost has set the tone for good design in popular culture.

Fine Arts:

Rock Jazz Bass Watercolor

Peter the Fisherman Sculpture

Guerrero Still Life VII Watercolor