Maquette for Atoms fountain "Earth"

Waylande Gregory’s artistic beginnings were rooted in traditional monumental sculpture. He was one of a number of designers working for the Cowan Pottery, where he created sleek, Art Deco table sculpture. After Cowan closed, he went to the famed Cranbrook Academy, outside of Detroit, where he had a studio and taught. His Cranbrook stay was cut short when the school temporarily closed due to the effects of the Great Depression. Following that, he moved to New Jersey where he set up his own ceramic studio in Metuchen. He became known for his large-scale monumental sculpture. Two of Gregory’s most successful sculptural commissions in the 1930s were his Light Dispelling Darkness, a memorial to Thomas Edison, and the Fountain of the Atom, made for the 1938 New York World’s Fair. This work is one of the small-scale modellos Gregory made while working out his large-scale sculptures. Here, a bare-chested woman sits against a crystalline structure, and represents Earth, one of the four elements represented in the final work.