George Ohr

Bisque partial guitar novelty.

Large sculptural bisque vase with ruffled rim.

The “Mad Potter of Biloxi”, George Ohr [1857-1918] was an American ceramicist celebrated from his freely expressive and experimental clay forms — prefiguring the modern Abstract-Expressionist movement with his strange and loose understandings of clay.  ‘Burnt Baby Cannon’ dumps functionality for a fascinating sculptural form, scaling down the body and appendages of the cannon to a strange, seemingly idle miniature now solely existent in the symbolic realm. Ohr’s use of particularly craggy and gritty clay (usually locally sourced from the Tchoutacabuffa river) lends a significant and effete textural depth, suggesting decay and the obsolete.

The “Mad Potter of Biloxi”, George Ohr [1857-1918] was an American ceramicist celebrated from his freely expressive and experimental clay forms — prefiguring the modern Abstract-Expressionist movement with his strange and loose understandings of clay. ‘Large Bisque Bank’ is clearly designed as a vessel for the storing of coins and would have been sold from within the potter’s workshop, the unusual figure typical of the artist’s easy and quick witted control of clay through modest gesture.