George E. Ohr

Painter

Birthday July 12, 1857

Birth Sign Cancer

Birthplace Biloxi, MS

DEATH DATE Apr 17, 1918 (60)

#190214 Most Popular

About

Southern artist whose experimental approach to manipulating clay earned him the nickname, the "Mad Potter of Biloxi." Considered by some to be the father of the American Abstract-Expressionism movement.

Before Fame

He was a ceramics apprentice to Joseph Fortune Meyer in 1879. He was a featured vendor at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans in 1884.

Trivia

He was hated by the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 1900s; he was primarily reviled for a lack of perfection in his art and minimal self-discipline in his persona. His work later became revered for pioneering the abstract sculpture and pottery movement of the mid-20th century.

Family Life

His parents were German immigrants who settled in Biloxi. He married Josephine Gehring in 1886 with whom he fathered 10 children; only five managed to reach adulthood.

Associated With

He incorporated many of the showman techniques of P.T. Barnum into his self-promotion; "unequaled, undisputed, unrivaled" were three ways in which he described himself.