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1905Born Baxter Springs, Kansas
1971Died New Jersey
EDUCATION
1922Kansas Manual Training Normal School, Kansas City, Pittsburg, Kansas
1924Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1931-1933Fellow in Residence, Cranbrook Academy, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE
1928-1932Chief designer and lead sculptor at Cowan Pottery, Rocky River, Ohio
1933-onwardStudio ceramist, sculptor, designer, Bound Brook, New Jersey
APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES
1924Apprentice to Lorado Taft, Midway Studios, Chicago, Illinois
BIOGRAPHY
Waylande DeSantis Gregory is known for large terra cotta sculpture. He also developed a process for fusing glass crystals to clay. Later in his career he designed a large line of brightly colored porcelain that was factory made.
In 1933 Waylande DeSantis Gregory established his studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. He also arranged to have a workshop at the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company in Perth Amboy where he had access to the company’s large kilns. He was able to develop the unglazed terra-cotta surfaces that became a major characteristic of his sculptures. During this time he also perfected a process of building ceramic sculptures on a honeycomb like grid enabling him to make his characteristic larger than life figurative sculptures. Gregory was the first modern sculptor to create one-piece monumental ceramic scufor ptures that remain among the largest works ever made with clay. His largest and most famous piece, The Fountain of the Atom, was commissioned for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
On his glazed works, Gregory used his own glaze recipes developed for single firings. During his short 18-month residency at Cranbrook, Gregory helped develop the foundations for the formal ceramics program. In addition to his clay work Gregory also wrote a newspaper column titled "Art in Living." He appeared in twenty episodes of "Creative Arts" for the National Broadcasting Company.
In the early 1940s Gregory developed and patented a process to fuse glass crystals to clay called "crystal" or "jewel" glaze.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
Roosevelt Park, Menlo Park New Jersey, a fountain, Light Dispelling Darkness.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, Washington, D.C.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clark, Garth. American Ceramics 1976 to the Present. New York, New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987.
Folk, Thomas. "Waylande Gregory," Ceramics Monthly (November 1994).
___________. "Waylande Gregory: Art Deco Ceramic Sculpture," American Art Review (March/April 2013).
____________ ."The Art Deco Porcelains of Waylande Gregory," Antiques & Fine Art Magazine, (Summer 2013).
____________, curator. Waylande Gregory: Art Deco Ceramics and the Atomic Impulse. Richmond, Virginia: University of Richmond Museums, 2013.
Levin, Elaine. The History of American Ceramics from Pipkins and Bean Pots to Contemporary Forms. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1988.
Schack, William. “The Sculpture of Waylande Gregory,” Parnassus (March 1939).
Tomlinson, Gerald. Murdered in New Jersey. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Citation: "The Marks Project." Last modified June 5, 2023. http://www.themarksproject.org/marks/gregory