The Mad Potter Of Biloxi

George Edgar Ohr (July 12, 1857 – April 7, 1918) was an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi" in Mississippi. In recognition of his innovative experimentation with modern clay forms from 1880 to 1910, some consider him a precursor to the American Abstract-Expressionism movement.

Biography

Early life

George Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on July 12, 1857. Ohr's parents were German immigrants who had arrived in New Orleans around 1850, his father had established the first blacksmith shop in Biloxi and his mother ran an early, popular grocery store there.

Early Career

George Ohr tried his hand at various trades before he became interested in ceramics in 1879, while an apprentice of Joseph Fortune Meyer, a potter whose family hailed from Alsace-Lorraine like Ohr's own.

In his lifetime, Ohr claimed to have made over 20,000 ceramic pieces. He called his work "unequaled, undisputed, unrivaled."In 1884, Ohr exhibited and sold his pottery at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. Of the hundreds of pieces he showed, Ohr boasted he showed "no two alike." Ohr married Josephine Gehring of New Orleans on September 15, 1886. Ten children were born to the Ohrs, but only 6 survived to adulthood.

Post-fire career

In 1894 a fire burned much of Biloxi, including Ohr's workshop. With most of his previous work destroyed, Ohr began anew and many historians consider this a turning point in his life and career, with his following work showing tremendous energy and fluidity.[7] George Ohr called his pots "mud babies". Upon the destruction of his workshop and his work, he gathered the pieces that survived the fire, and although burned, he kept each piece, calling them his " burned babies".

For much of his lifetime Ohr was most widely known for his eccentric self-promotion. He operated his studio as a regional attraction, calling it his "Pot-Ohr-E," and his main customers were curious tourists drawn in by his "odd-looking" workshop and numerous signs.

His achieved some degree of notoriety, but mixed success. In 1904 he traveled to the St. Louis World's Fair with hundreds of pieces to sell, but although people stopped to look at his pottery he wound up selling nothing. Ohr died of throat cancer on April 7, 1918.