George E. Ohr (1857-1918) was an early American pottery artist who broke new ground in the late 1890s as he experimented with modern clay forms. Click here for Indian Rebellion of 1857 Year 1857 ( MDCCCLVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Pottery is the Ceramic ware made by potters It also refers to a group of materials that includes Earthenware, Stoneware The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the " Mauve Decade" because William Henry Perkin 's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that ^[1] Some consider him the father of the American Abstract-Expressionism movement.

Life

Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on July 12, 1857, married Josephine Gehring of New Orleans on September 15, 1886, in Biloxi, and died in 1918. Mississippi ( is a state located in the Deep South of the United States New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana ^[2]

He studied the potter's trade with Joseph Meyer in New Orleans, a potter whose family hailed from Alsace-Lorraine, as did Ohr's. Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen generally Elsass - Lothringen) was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 ^[3] Ohr's father had established the first blacksmith shop in Biloxi and his mother ran an early, popular grocery store there. blacksmith is a person who creates objects from Iron or Steel by Forging the Metal; i A grocery store is a store established primarily for the Retailing of Food. ^[4] In his lifetime, Ohr created over 10,000 known pots. He called himself "The Mad Potter of Biloxi" and was a showman of the style of P.T. Barnum, a contemporary. Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5 1810 &ndash April 7 1891 was an American Showman remembered for Hoaxes and for founding the Circus that became the Ohr was an iconic American figure at the turn of the last century. He called his work "unequaled, undisputed, unrivaled. "^[5] In 1884, Ohr exhibited and sold his wares at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. The 1884 World's Fair was held in New Orleans Louisiana. At a time when nearly one third of all Cotton produced in the United States was handled in New Of the 600 pieces he brought to New Orleans, no two were alike. ^[6] The 1894 fire that burned most of Biloxi also destroyed Ohr's workshop, and it has been noted that Ohr's post-fire works show tremendous "energy" and "fluidity. "^[6]

His work

While Ohr had a healthy self-image, during his lifetime many others in the art world did not accept him or his pots, and considered him a boasting eccentric. In the early 1900s, the Arts and Crafts Movement and its leaders (such as William Morris) advocated that an artist should display control and perfection in all art forms. William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896 was an English Architect, Furniture and Textile designer artist writer and socialist associated Ohr displayed little obvious perfectionism in his art or control in his person, antagonizing art leaders nationally and political leaders at home. Ohr's work is now seen as ground-breaking and a harbinger of the abstract sculpture and pottery that developed in the mid-20th century. Ohr's pieces are now relatively rare and highly coveted. ^[7]

A notable feature of Ohr's pottery is that many items have thin walls, metallic glazes, and twisted, pinched shapes. Pottery is the Ceramic ware made by potters It also refers to a group of materials that includes Earthenware, Stoneware To this day potters marvel at Ohr's porcelain-thin walls and unusual glazes. No one has been able to replicate them using a pottery wheel, which is how Ohr made his works. Ohr dug much of his clay locally in southern Mississippi from the Tchoutacabouffa River. ^[6] Tchoutacabouffa translates to "broken pot. "

Aerial view of the casino barge washed onto the site of the new Ohr-O'Keefe museum in September 2005

The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum

The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi has a large permanent collection of Ohr's work. A new museum building for the Ohr-O'Keefe that has been designed by Frank Gehry and will be set on a four-acre site was originally scheduled to open in July 2006,^[8] but was partially destroyed during Hurricane Katrina when a casino barge was washed onto the semi-constructed facility. Frank Owen Gehry CC (born Ephraim Owen Goldberg, February 28, 1929) is a Pritzker Prize -winning Architect Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest in the history of the United States Grand Biloxi Casino Hotel and Spa is the name of a gambling establishment in Biloxi, Mississippi. Efforts are under way to recover insurance, and meanwhile, a major national exhibition of Ohr pottery was planned by the museum for 2007. ^[9] In early 2008, the planned traveling exhibition, titled "George Ohr Rising: The Emergence of an American Master," was being shown at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California. Pomona is the 5th largest city in Los Angeles County (after Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, and Santa Clarita) ^[10]

External links

• Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art

References