“I am the greatest potter in the world” so said the master art potter from Biloxi, Mississippi. The United States Potters Association records a reply from George in 1905 inviting him to exhibit his wares then he stated, “I send you four pieces, but it is as easy to pass judgment on my productions from four pieces as it would be to take four lines from Shakespeare and guess the rest.” Yes George was a colorful and gifted artist. Born in 1819, at an early age began his illustrous career as a blacksmith, even though he state’s “about fourteen other professions.” In his early formulative years visiting “sixteen states” suggested he “sized up every potter and pottery” as his sights focused on clay. Returning to New Orleans by 1881, he is reputedly associated with Jacob Meyer from Newcomb College fame but this was a step towards his illustrious career.
Then came expositions, exhibits, but none ever measured up to George’s own vision of his works contributing goal. He professed himself to be unmatched to any other potters and even dared anyone try measuring up to his own work. Rightfully so his paper thin, contorted shapes to this day will never be challenged if so, the glaze certainly eliminates any “wanta be’s.” George’s results races ahead. His works or “mud baby’s” were for the most part never sold until they were discovered in the attic of his family auto repair shop warehouse during 1968 by James Carpenter when over seven thousand pieces were rescued. George’s fame was recognized over fifty years after his death now puts him where he and he only knew where his art belonged, at the top of the ceramic world. His pieces display what some have refereed to as “tortured or punished “ clay. Ohr’s masterful art form is the concept of a book dedicated to his life as portrayed wonderfully through the book titled The Mad Potter of Biloxi: The Art & Life Of George E. Ohr” by Clark, Ellison, and Hecht, Abbeville Press 1989. Marty Shack served as a special consultant on this book as it is phenomenal and a must for Ohr fans. What an artist, and visionary George Edger Ohr was.
Then came expositions, exhibits, but none ever measured up to George’s own vision of his works contributing goal. He professed himself to be unmatched to any other potters and even dared anyone try measuring up to his own work. Rightfully so his paper thin, contorted shapes to this day will never be challenged if so, the glaze certainly eliminates any “wanta be’s.” George’s results races ahead. His works or “mud baby’s” were for the most part never sold until they were discovered in the attic of his family auto repair shop warehouse during 1968 by James Carpenter when over seven thousand pieces were rescued. George’s fame was recognized over fifty years after his death now puts him where he and he only knew where his art belonged, at the top of the ceramic world. His pieces display what some have refereed to as “tortured or punished “ clay. Ohr’s masterful art form is the concept of a book dedicated to his life as portrayed wonderfully through the book titled The Mad Potter of Biloxi: The Art & Life Of George E. Ohr” by Clark, Ellison, and Hecht, Abbeville Press 1989. Marty Shack served as a special consultant on this book as it is phenomenal and a must for Ohr fans. What an artist, and visionary George Edger Ohr was.
|
|