Artist

Robert Sperry

born Bushnell, IL 1927-died Seattle, WA 1998
Born
Bushnell, Illinois, United States
Died
Seattle, Washington, United States
Active in
  • Seattle, Washington, United States
Biography

Born in Bushnell, Illinois, Robert Sperry earned a B.A. degree at the University of Saskatchewan, a B.F.A. in 1953 at the School of the Art Inistitute of Chicago, and an M.F.A. in 1955 at the University of Washington. Early in his ceramic career Sperry found inspiration at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, where he worked with Peter Voulkos and Rudy Autio. An influential ceramist, Sperry was on the faculty of the University of Washington from 1955 until his retirement in 1982, serving as the head of the ceramics department for twenty-two years.

Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998)

Works by this artist (4 items)

Robert Sperry, Plate #753, 1986, stoneware and glaze with slip, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance, 1994.30
Plate #753
Date1986
stoneware and glaze with slip
Not on view
Robert Sperry, Ceramic Wall Mural "#988", 1991, stoneware with slip and glaze, steel, plywood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patti Warashina, 2021.86.2
Ceramic Wall Mural “#988
Date1991
stoneware with slip and glaze, steel, plywood
Not on view
Robert Sperry, Wall Plaque, 1984, glazed stoneware, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Theodore Cohen in memory of his mother and her sisters: Rose Melmon Cohen, Blanche Melmon, Mary Melmon Greenberg and Fanny Melmon Liberman, 1998.122.23, © 1998, M. Patricia Warashina
Wall Plaque
Date1984
glazed stoneware
Not on view
Robert Sperry, Plate #179, n.d., stoneware, glaze, and gold luster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Donna and John Donaldson in memory of Jean and John Michael on the occasion of the Fifteenth Anniversary of the James Renwick Alliance and the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Renwick Gallery, 1997.109.25, © 1974, Robert Sperry
Plate #179
Daten.d.
stoneware, glaze, and gold luster
Not on view