Waylande Gregory Sold at Auction Prices

Sculptor, b. 1905 - d. 1971

Waylande Desantis Gregory (1905 Baxter Springs, Kansas – 1971, New Jersey) was one of the most innovative and prolific American art-deco ceramics sculptors of the early 20th century. His groundbreaking techniques enabled him to create monumental ceramic sculpture, such as the Fountain of the Atoms and Light Dispelling Darkness, which had hitherto not been possible. He also developed revolutionary glazing and processing methods, and was a seminal figure in the studio glass movement.

Waylande Gregory was born in Baxter Springs, Kansas in 1905. His mother was a concert pianist, and his father was a farmer. From an early age he showed precocious artistic talent, beginning with small sculptures of animals in earth, as well as prodigious musical talent, even composing his own pieces. He at one time declared that he would no longer play pieces by Bach, but only original pieces he had written himself.[citation needed]

In 1913, his mother moved to Pittsburg, Kansas in order to gain better educational opportunities for her three sons. At age 11, Gregory enrolled at the laboratory grade school at State Manual Training Normal, a teacher's college, where he was taught by student teachers who were under supervision (the school would later become Pittsburg State University of Kansas). There, he studied crafts including carpentry and ceramics.