Ocean Springs – The Walter Anderson Museum of Art, exhibits the George Ohr: Mischievous Master.  Ocean Springs will get to view this stunning display of George Ohr’s pottery.  This exhibition will continue to show at the museum through January 28, 2007.

This exhibition of the work of the turn of the 20^th century artist and showman, George E. Ohr, is a special loan exhibit from the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Biloxi.  This work is too beautiful to be out of sight during the rebuilding of the heavily damaged Biloxi museum.  One part of WAMA’s efforts to assist in the revival of the cultural community on the coast is to make exhibition space available to the museums that have not been able to reopen since the hurricane Katrina.  “So much art and culture was lost to Katrina’s wind and water, that it is critical we all celebrate and cherish what is remaining.  We are so pleased and proud to be able to share our spaces with our colleagues” said WAMA executive director Gayle Petty-Johnson. 

Artist Bio

George Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1857.  In 1879, Joseph Meyer offered to teach Ohr the potter¹s trade.  Ohr¹s family knew potters Francois and Joseph Meyer, a father and son from France who settled in Biloxi, but later moved to New Orleans.  In New Orleans, Joseph Meyer taught George Ohr to use materials at hand, including local clays, to build rudimentary wood-burning kilns, and the formulae for old-world lead glazes.  They produced utilitarian pottery wares and novelties for the tourist trade.  George said he "took to pottery like a duck takes to water." In 1882, Ohr returned to Biloxi, to build his first pottery.  In 1884, he exhibited over 600 pieces in the World¹s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.  He used state fairs, international expositions and trade fairs to exhibit and sell his work.

Newcomb College Pottery prided itself on producing "no two alike."  Ohr used this philosophy to his advantage.  It became his mantra and described the unique quality of his "mud babies."  Ohr returned to Biloxi, but remained involved with the New Orleans Art Pottery/Newcomb College endeavor through 1896.  George's new pottery buildings burned in 1894, and over 10,000 works were destroyed.  Ohr's life was a study in stamina and resilience; he always persevered and started over.  Despite his reputation for eccentricity, George Ohr was a hard worker.  In the later part of his life, he produced quality art pottery that would be appreciated and remembered for centuries.  George cultivated the idea that he was crazy, calling himself "The Mad Potter of Biloxi."  He said that he was "unrivaled" or "unequalled" and was, by his own estimation, the "world¹s greatest potter."

Ohr's skills exploded when he became an "artist-potter."  His claim there were "no two alike" was true.  The pinched, folded and twisted clay forms, thinness of the clay wall, fluidity of form, tendril-like handles, and freshness of Ohr's creations illustrate a technical skill that is still unrivaled.  One hundred years later, potters marvel at his skill and cannot rightly say exactly how it was done.  Critics of the day praised Ohr's glazes, but as his admiration for pure forms executed in clay increased, he left many pieces unglazed in bisque form.  He believed only in this state could the form be clearly perceived.  Today we have a legacy of Ohr's bisque pieces that act as a sampler of his pinches, folds, and fabulously thin-walled clay creations.

Though he was recognized as an artist to some extent, it was only at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, that he received any official awards, the Silver Medal. He felt he was unappreciated, misunderstood, and lacked a lasting reputation.  To combat the feeling of having no artistic " immortality," in 1900 he addressed a box of work to the Smithsonian Institution, with it an inscription, "I am the potter who was.”  He died in 1918.

In the late Sixties, Jim Carpenter, an antique dealer, came to Biloxi in search of parts for antique cars and was directed to the Aut2 Repair Shop.  He was shown boxes of George Ohr's work.  After negotiating for several years, Carpenter bought the entire lot of work, took it home to New Jersey, and started slowly selling it to the rising group of collectors interested in the "Mad Potter of Biloxi."  In 1973, Carpenter saw to it that the box addressed to the Smithsonian was delivered.  In a turn of events that would have pleased George Ohr enormously, the museum bearing his name and celebrating his genius became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in 2002.  The interest in Ohr's work that was rekindled with Carpenter's purchase continues to escalate today, and now George Ohr is considered a genius with pottery, "pushing the expressionistic limits of clay to its limits."

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art is the only American Association of Museums accredited institutions on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Visit : www.walterandersonmuseum.org/