Robert Sperry

born Bushnell, Illinois, 1927; died Seattle, Washington, 1998

BiographyRobert Sperry earned his BA degree from the University of Saskatchewan and in 1954, his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from 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. In 1955 he became Professor of Ceramics at the University of Washington, a position he held until his retirement in 1982. He helped shape the University of Washington's ceramics program into one of the country's most influential.

Sperry was an experimentalist with clays and glazes. His work moved from explorations of the decorative possibilities for functional ware, into sculpture and large-scale public-art murals in ceramic. He was also a painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who helped launch the University of Washington film program and co-founded Northwest Designer Craftsmen. Works by Sperry appear in numerous collections, including the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the Renwick Gallery, both in Washington, D.C.; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum; and Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art in Korea.

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