Waylande Gregory
Encyclopedia
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 twentieth 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 was also an early seminal figure in the studio glass movement.
period in America. Artistically, he had developed much of the art-deco sculptural visual vocabulary in American art. In one of his more notable pieces, Salome
, the horror of the decapitated
St. John the Baptist
is secondary to the lyricism of the near linear rhythm of Salome’s dance of the seven veils
, expressive of pure form and motion. He combines both the erotic dance of the seven veils simultaneously with the decapitated head of St. John on a silver platter. Unlike his contemporaries at Cowan studios who followed in the footsteps of Austria
n modern pottery exemplified by the Wiener Werkstätte
, Waylande Gregory sought to create a distinctly American form, for instance, his second sculpture of Henry Fonda
, capturing in essence what he felt were the best American traits.
Technically, his most direct contributions include development of methods for the creation of monumental ceramic sculptural works, and the development of revolutionary glazing and processing methods. After he had moved to New Jersey and begun to work with the large kiln
s at Atlantic Terra Cotta
, he began to develop new techniques which made monumental ceramic sculpture possible. Prior to Waylande Gregory, ceramic sculpture was limited in size due to the tendency for clay
to slump after being formed without being supported by an armature of metal or wood. Other methods included sculpting the entire piece in clay and then going back and hollowing out the clay on the inside. This would lead to problems with sagging during firing, and tendency to crack. As a result, there were many limitations to the prior two techniques. By using a honeycomb method of building up the ceramic sculpture from the inside out, similar to the way that wasps build up their nests, he was able to form the sculpture as a self-supporting whole prior to firing, and his sculptures would go through the firing process successfully without cracking. Unlike other ceramicists, who would fire the sculpture to bisque, and then glaze, he would form, glaze
and then fire the sculpture only once for the finished art
work.
He never used factory-made glazes, grinding and mixing all of the glazes himself, carefully controlling firing temperatures as well as kiln atmosphere to achieve the effects that he desired. Among his innovations are compressing of glaze powder into a crayon for sfograffito, and a patented process for fusing glass and ceramic together in a crackle pattern.
in 1905. His mother was a concert pianist and his father a farmer
. From an early age he had shown 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 by Waylande Gregory.
In 1913, his mother moved to Pittsburg, Kansas
in order to gain better educational opportunities for her 3 sons. At age 11 he was 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. State Manual Training Normal would later become Pittsburg State University
of Kansas, studying crafts including carpentry and ceramics.
to attend the Art Institute, but immediately began to receive commissions for the sculptural decoration of the administration building at the University of Kansas
in Lawrence, a statue of Pan for a Kansas City park, and a plaster relief sculpture for the Masonic Temple Building in Wichita. While at the Art Institute, he attracted the attention of Lorado Taft, a gay sculptor, primarily in bronze and marble, academically trained at the Êcole des Beaux Arts in Paris, who already had a reputation as a mentor to other American sculptors such as Janet Scudder
. Lorado Taft
had asked Waylande Gregory to be his assistant and to join him at the Art Institute of Chicago
, at Midway Studios. For two years, he studied with Taft on and off. Taft would also bring him to Europe, to study classical Renaissance
sculpture as well as to visit other artists in Europe
. His experience with Lorado Taft would lead him to begin thinking of ceramic sculpture on a monumental scale.
In the meantime, at age 20, Waylande Gregory would direct the decoration and design of the Missouri Theater
, the Hotel President in Kansas City, and the bas relief panels at Brandenburg field at Pittsburgh State University (Kansas). His most famous work at the Hotel President was the Aztec Room, the hotel's dining room, which he had decorated in Mayan
plaster-of-Paris reliefs as interpreted in an art-deco idiom. Beneath the circular calendar, he had placed a replica of an Aztec
altar which had recently been excavated in Mexico
, and which he had studied while in Chicago
. The large sculpture of Quetzlcoatl, hidden lights and the reddish hue contributed to the ambience of exoticism and mystery.
By 1928, his study under Lorado Taft ended as he was beginning to find that Taft’s academic style as well as the study of the casts of prominent Renaissance sculptures at the studio in Chicago did not suit him. After a long trip to Europe with Lorado Taft, he returned home, visually sated, ready to take the next step in his artistic development.
in Rocky River, Ohio
, a suburb of Cleveland, where he and his colleague, Viktor Schreckengost
became the leading sculptors of the Cowan Pottery studio. Unlike his contemporaries at the Cowan Studio, who were primarily influenced by Viennese modern pottery, Wiener Werkstätte
, Waylande Gregory was much more influenced by the Cleveland School as well as by leading American bronze sculptor Paul Manship
who had also worked for Cowan.
Cowan studio works are generally table-top-sized sculptures done in limited editions. His most famous sculptures from this period are Europa, Nautch Dancer, and Burlesque, as well as Salome and Margarita. Salome combines the essential horror of the story of John the Baptist, his beheading, as well as Salome’s veil dance. However, the horror of the event is muted, becoming secondary to an expression of the line, movement and dynamics of the drapery and human movement. Salome won first prize at the Cleveland Museum of Art
May Show of 1929. His Cowan work is characterized by smooth, linear, flowing forms.
In 1930 he married his wife Yolanda, a Hungarian immigrant. Their relationship appeared to evolve to be based more on friendship than sexual love. Although she could be very critical, she was always very supportive of him as an artist. Due to the onset of the Great Depression
, Cowan Studios closed their doors in 1931, bringing this chapter of Waylande Gregory’s career to a close.
in Michigan
, a suburb of Detroit. Here he was able to further develop his craft as, for the first time, he had access to the precise control of an electric kiln
. His sculpture evolved into more Italianate forms, with more volume and weight than prior. Also, it was here he began to develop his sense of color more thoroughly, commenting that the “Chinese loved everything vivid and rich in tone, but we as a nation are just beginning to grow up to it.” One of his most notable pieces is the terracotta sculpture of the Two Clowns on Unicycles, a complex piece of two clowns back-to-back, one playing a tuba, the other juggling poodles. The sculpture is vividly colored, unlike much American sculpture of the time, which was monochrome bronze. Other notable sculptures from this period are Ichabod Crane and the Kansas Madonna. In 1933, this period came to a close after a row with the manager of the Cranbrook Academy. The kilns had been shut down over a banker’s holiday, ruining many of his works in progress.
where he had set up a workshop in the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company
. This is where he developed his technique for the creation of monumental ceramic works utilizing an internal honeycomb-like structure, building the statue from the inside outward. As director of the New Jersey WPA, he began work on the monumental Light Dispelling Darkness which still stands in Roosevelt Park
in Edison, New Jersey
. Some photos are included in this article on the recently restored fountain. Others have been published in an article in Weird New Jersey.
for earth and one of the electron
s have been published. The fountain of the atoms was paired with his sculptural tableau, American Imports and Exports.
. Things began to look up in the 1960s as he had acquired a patron in the form of Barbara Farmer who had begun arrangements to build a new arts center in Middlefield, Massachusetts
. The hopeful prospects came to an abrupt end when she was murdered by her husband who suspected her of conducting an affair with Gregory. He returned to New Jersey to resume his work, but he was never the same after that incident.
As he became older, he began to have problems handling the heavy weight of ceramic for his monumental sculpture and began to branch out into hammered metal and lightweight materials such as foam, intended for later rendering in ceramic. His hammered lead sculpture The Dreamer won a silver medal from the National Sculpture Society
in 1970.
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
– 1971, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
) was one of the most innovative and prolific American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
art-deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
ceramics sculptors of the early twentieth 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 was also an early seminal figure in the studio glass movement.
Major artistic impact
Waylande Gregory is one of the most influential ceramic sculptors of the 20th century, who had helped to shape the Art DecoArt Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
period in America. Artistically, he had developed much of the art-deco sculptural visual vocabulary in American art. In one of his more notable pieces, Salome
Salome
Salome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...
, the horror of the decapitated
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
St. John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
is secondary to the lyricism of the near linear rhythm of Salome’s dance of the seven veils
Dance of the Seven Veils
In several notable works of Western culture, the Dance of the Seven Veils is one of the elaborations on the biblical tale of the execution of John the Baptist...
, expressive of pure form and motion. He combines both the erotic dance of the seven veils simultaneously with the decapitated head of St. John on a silver platter. Unlike his contemporaries at Cowan studios who followed in the footsteps of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n modern pottery exemplified by the Wiener Werkstätte
Wiener Werkstätte
Established in 1903, the Wiener Werkstätte was a production community of visual artists. The workshop brought together architects, artists and designers whose first commitment was to design art which would be accessible to everyone...
, Waylande Gregory sought to create a distinctly American form, for instance, his second sculpture of Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, capturing in essence what he felt were the best American traits.
Technically, his most direct contributions include development of methods for the creation of monumental ceramic sculptural works, and the development of revolutionary glazing and processing methods. After he had moved to New Jersey and begun to work with the large kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
s at Atlantic Terra Cotta
A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta
A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta was founded in 1846 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey due to Perth Amboy's rich supplies of clay. It was one of the first successful terra cotta plants in the United States. Originally, the manufactory produced porcelain and household wares but transitioned to terra cotta...
, he began to develop new techniques which made monumental ceramic sculpture possible. Prior to Waylande Gregory, ceramic sculpture was limited in size due to the tendency for clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
to slump after being formed without being supported by an armature of metal or wood. Other methods included sculpting the entire piece in clay and then going back and hollowing out the clay on the inside. This would lead to problems with sagging during firing, and tendency to crack. As a result, there were many limitations to the prior two techniques. By using a honeycomb method of building up the ceramic sculpture from the inside out, similar to the way that wasps build up their nests, he was able to form the sculpture as a self-supporting whole prior to firing, and his sculptures would go through the firing process successfully without cracking. Unlike other ceramicists, who would fire the sculpture to bisque, and then glaze, he would form, glaze
Ceramic glaze
Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...
and then fire the sculpture only once for the finished art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
work.
He never used factory-made glazes, grinding and mixing all of the glazes himself, carefully controlling firing temperatures as well as kiln atmosphere to achieve the effects that he desired. Among his innovations are compressing of glaze powder into a crayon for sfograffito, and a patented process for fusing glass and ceramic together in a crackle pattern.
Early life
Waylande Gregory was born in Baxter, KansasBaxter Springs, Kansas
Baxter Springs is a town situated along the Spring River in the extreme southeastern part of Cherokee County, located in southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,238...
in 1905. His mother was a concert pianist and his father a farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
. From an early age he had shown precocious artistic talent, beginning with small sculptures of animals in earth, as well as prodigious musical
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
talent, even composing his own pieces. He at one time declared that he would no longer play pieces by Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
but only original pieces by Waylande Gregory.
In 1913, his mother moved to Pittsburg, Kansas
Pittsburg, Kansas
Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, in southeastern Kansas, United States. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and in southeastern Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 20,233.-History:...
in order to gain better educational opportunities for her 3 sons. At age 11 he was 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. State Manual Training Normal would later become Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg State University, also called Pitt State or PSU, is a public university with approximately 7,100 students located in Pittsburg, Kansas, United States. A large percentage of the student population consists of residents within the Pittsburg region; the gender proportion is relatively equal...
of Kansas, studying crafts including carpentry and ceramics.
Adolescence and early adulthood
By the age of 14, he had made a bust of the school principal in only six sittings, as well as a ceramic statue called The Spirit of Athletics which is a composite of the best parts of his three classmates. While in high school, he had won awards for sculpture at the Kansas State Fair. After high school he had moved to Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
to attend the Art Institute, but immediately began to receive commissions for the sculptural decoration of the administration building at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
in Lawrence, a statue of Pan for a Kansas City park, and a plaster relief sculpture for the Masonic Temple Building in Wichita. While at the Art Institute, he attracted the attention of Lorado Taft, a gay sculptor, primarily in bronze and marble, academically trained at the Êcole des Beaux Arts in Paris, who already had a reputation as a mentor to other American sculptors such as Janet Scudder
Janet Scudder
Janet Scudder was an American sculptor.-Biography:Born as Netta Deweze Frazee, Scudder's childhood was marred by tragedy. Her father was a hardworking Terre Haute, Indiana confectioner who was active in community affairs. Her mother died, aged 38, on September 6, 1874...
. Lorado Taft
Lorado Taft
Lorado Zadoc Taft was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860 and died in his home studio in Chicago in 1936.-Early years and education:...
had asked Waylande Gregory to be his assistant and to join him at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, at Midway Studios. For two years, he studied with Taft on and off. Taft would also bring him to Europe, to study classical Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
sculpture as well as to visit other artists in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. His experience with Lorado Taft would lead him to begin thinking of ceramic sculpture on a monumental scale.
In the meantime, at age 20, Waylande Gregory would direct the decoration and design of the Missouri Theater
Missouri Theater and Missouri Theater Building
The Missouri Theater and the Missouri Theater Building adjoin each other in St. Joseph, Missouri. The Missouri Theater was built as a cinema in the atmospheric style, using a combination of Art Deco and Moorish detailing...
, the Hotel President in Kansas City, and the bas relief panels at Brandenburg field at Pittsburgh State University (Kansas). His most famous work at the Hotel President was the Aztec Room, the hotel's dining room, which he had decorated in Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
plaster-of-Paris reliefs as interpreted in an art-deco idiom. Beneath the circular calendar, he had placed a replica of an Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
altar which had recently been excavated in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and which he had studied while in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The large sculpture of Quetzlcoatl, hidden lights and the reddish hue contributed to the ambience of exoticism and mystery.
By 1928, his study under Lorado Taft ended as he was beginning to find that Taft’s academic style as well as the study of the casts of prominent Renaissance sculptures at the studio in Chicago did not suit him. After a long trip to Europe with Lorado Taft, he returned home, visually sated, ready to take the next step in his artistic development.
Cowan period
In 1928, he had left Midland Studios and joined R. Guy CowanR. Guy Cowan
Reginald Guy Cowan was an American potter and designer. He founded Cowan Pottery and was a leading figure in the Cleveland School of artists....
in Rocky River, Ohio
Rocky River, Ohio
Rocky River is an affluent western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, United States located in Cuyahoga County approximately nine miles west of Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The city is named for the river that forms its eastern border...
, a suburb of Cleveland, where he and his colleague, Viktor Schreckengost
Viktor Schreckengost
Viktor Schreckengost was a noted American industrial designer and teacher, sculptor, and artist. His wide-ranging work included noted pottery designs, industrial design, bicycle design and seminal research on radar feedback...
became the leading sculptors of the Cowan Pottery studio. Unlike his contemporaries at the Cowan Studio, who were primarily influenced by Viennese modern pottery, Wiener Werkstätte
Wiener Werkstätte
Established in 1903, the Wiener Werkstätte was a production community of visual artists. The workshop brought together architects, artists and designers whose first commitment was to design art which would be accessible to everyone...
, Waylande Gregory was much more influenced by the Cleveland School as well as by leading American bronze sculptor Paul Manship
Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship was an American sculptor.-Life:Manship began his art studies at the St. Paul School of Art in Minnesota. From there he moved to Philadelphia and continued his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts...
who had also worked for Cowan.
Cowan studio works are generally table-top-sized sculptures done in limited editions. His most famous sculptures from this period are Europa, Nautch Dancer, and Burlesque, as well as Salome and Margarita. Salome combines the essential horror of the story of John the Baptist, his beheading, as well as Salome’s veil dance. However, the horror of the event is muted, becoming secondary to an expression of the line, movement and dynamics of the drapery and human movement. Salome won first prize at the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
May Show of 1929. His Cowan work is characterized by smooth, linear, flowing forms.
In 1930 he married his wife Yolanda, a Hungarian immigrant. Their relationship appeared to evolve to be based more on friendship than sexual love. Although she could be very critical, she was always very supportive of him as an artist. Due to the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Cowan Studios closed their doors in 1931, bringing this chapter of Waylande Gregory’s career to a close.
Cranbrook period
In 1931, Waylande Gregory became artist in residence at the Cranbrook Academy at Bloomfield HillsBloomfield Hills, Michigan
Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan, northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,869...
in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, a suburb of Detroit. Here he was able to further develop his craft as, for the first time, he had access to the precise control of an electric kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
. His sculpture evolved into more Italianate forms, with more volume and weight than prior. Also, it was here he began to develop his sense of color more thoroughly, commenting that the “Chinese loved everything vivid and rich in tone, but we as a nation are just beginning to grow up to it.” One of his most notable pieces is the terracotta sculpture of the Two Clowns on Unicycles, a complex piece of two clowns back-to-back, one playing a tuba, the other juggling poodles. The sculpture is vividly colored, unlike much American sculpture of the time, which was monochrome bronze. Other notable sculptures from this period are Ichabod Crane and the Kansas Madonna. In 1933, this period came to a close after a row with the manager of the Cranbrook Academy. The kilns had been shut down over a banker’s holiday, ruining many of his works in progress.
New Jersey period
In 1933, he and his wife Yolanda had moved to Perth AmboyPerth Amboy, New Jersey
Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The City of Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 50,814. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", referring to Raritan Bay.-Name:The Lenape...
where he had set up a workshop in the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company
A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta
A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta was founded in 1846 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey due to Perth Amboy's rich supplies of clay. It was one of the first successful terra cotta plants in the United States. Originally, the manufactory produced porcelain and household wares but transitioned to terra cotta...
. This is where he developed his technique for the creation of monumental ceramic works utilizing an internal honeycomb-like structure, building the statue from the inside outward. As director of the New Jersey WPA, he began work on the monumental Light Dispelling Darkness which still stands in Roosevelt Park
Roosevelt Park (Edison)
Roosevelt Park is a park located in Edison, New Jersey, at Parsonage Road and U.S. Route 1, just west of Menlo Park Mall. It is owned and operated by the Middlesex County government. It contains a number of picnic groves as well as fields and courts for baseball, soccer, basketball and tennis...
in Edison, New Jersey
Edison, New Jersey
Edison Township is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey. What is now Edison Township was originally incorporated as Raritan Township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1870, from portions of both Piscataway Township and Woodbridge Township...
. Some photos are included in this article on the recently restored fountain. Others have been published in an article in Weird New Jersey.
Light Dispelling Darkness
Light Dispelling Darkness laid much of the technical groundwork for The Fountain of the Atom. It exhibits a heroic theme of combating evil through knowledge. It is a terracotta globe surrounding a shaft of relief figures of a scientist, artist, engineer, and muscular, un-shirted men apparently representing industrial workers or working-class people. On the outside are six figures representing conquest, war, famine, death, greed and materialism fleeing the forces of science and knowledge, an appropriate theme for Edison, NJ. Out of the six figures, 4 of them contain the horses of the Apocalypse.Fountain of the Atoms
The Fountain of the Atoms was made for the 1939 World’s Fair. It is composed of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, surrounded by eight electrons, 4 male and 4 female, similar to amorini. He described the electrons as, “elemental little savages of boundless electrical energy, dancing to the rhythm of sculptured bolts of lightning-like flashes in brilliant colored glazes, their buoyant shaped bodies of richly modeled terracotta clays in warm colors.” The four elements were grouped around illuminated tubes of glass which were topped by a flame, and carried water at the top of the fountain. Pictures of the maquetteMaquette
A maquette is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture...
for earth and one of the electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
s have been published. The fountain of the atoms was paired with his sculptural tableau, American Imports and Exports.
Later years
Having achieved critical success and reached the peak of his artistic powers in the 1930s, Waylande Gregory receded from the spotlight of publicity in later years. Conflict with his main art-gallery dealer and poor decisions regarding the pricing of his art, caused the popularity of his major works to decline. He began to make limited-edition works for large department stores such as Hammacher Schlemmer. One of the most famous of these is the table setting with dishes and centerpieces done on a theme of polo players, a favorite subject which he liked to watch at Schley Field in Far Hills. In 1942, he filed for a patent for his process of fusing glass to ceramic. In the remaining years, he would make money by teaching art classes, and made regular appearances on the television show, Ding Dong SchoolDing Dong School
Ding Dong School, billed as "the Nursery school of the air", is a half-hour children's TV show which began on WNBQ-TV in Chicago, Illinois a few months before its four-year run on NBC ....
. Things began to look up in the 1960s as he had acquired a patron in the form of Barbara Farmer who had begun arrangements to build a new arts center in Middlefield, Massachusetts
Middlefield, Massachusetts
Middlefield is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 542 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
. The hopeful prospects came to an abrupt end when she was murdered by her husband who suspected her of conducting an affair with Gregory. He returned to New Jersey to resume his work, but he was never the same after that incident.
As he became older, he began to have problems handling the heavy weight of ceramic for his monumental sculpture and began to branch out into hammered metal and lightweight materials such as foam, intended for later rendering in ceramic. His hammered lead sculpture The Dreamer won a silver medal from the National Sculpture Society
National Sculpture Society
Founded in 1893, the National Sculpture Society was the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the United States. The purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of American sculptors, although its founding members included several renowned architects. The founding...
in 1970.