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Auction archive: Lot number 54

George Ohr

Estimate
£80,000 - £120,000
ca. US$104,228 - US$156,342
Price realised:
n. a.
Auction archive: Lot number 54

George Ohr

Estimate
£80,000 - £120,000
ca. US$104,228 - US$156,342
Price realised:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

Property from the Collection of Marty and Estelle Shack George Ohr Follow Mottled two-sided, two-handled vase impressed twice 'GEO. E. OHR' and 'BILOXI, MISS' on the underside glazed earthenware height 18 cm (7 1/8 in.) Executed circa 1895.
Provenance Clo, Ojo, and Geo Ohr, Biloxi, Mississippi James Carpenter Montague, New Jersey (acquired from the above in 1971) Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in the early 1970s) Acquired from the above by the present owner in the 1980s Literature Eugene Hecht, George Ohr: The Greatest Art Potter on Earth , New York, 2013, pp. 243-45, back cover (illustrated) Catalogue Essay In 1967, when James Carpenter a New Jersey antiques dealer, climbed up the ladder to the attic of the Ohr Brothers’ barn in Biloxi, Mississippi, he encountered a field of wooden boxes containing thousands of pots by the brothers’ father, George Edgar Ohr. At first the find, whilst big, did not seem that exciting, but as he began to wipe away fifty years of dirt and grime (the barn had been in use as an automobile repair business since 1916), the brilliant colours of Ohr’s radical polychrome glazes began to emerge. These pots comprised most of Ohr’s output of 'art' pots (he called them 'clay babies') made between 1895 and 1909. Ohr became reluctant to sell his work after bruising encounters with the snobbish North Eastern Arts and Crafts establishment who rejected him as a Southern outsider. Their reviews were often cruel, speaking of his creativity as a kind of insanity, hence his label, 'The Mad Potter of Biloxi.' Ohr began to hoard his own art pots, rarely selling his best work and instead making novelty ceramics to sell at the fairs. He made two predictions about his future. The first was that his work would become highly valued as art but by a later generation. The second was that the Nation would build a temple to his genius. He proved correct on both. Given the size of Carpenter’s acquisition of these pots it seems there must be a lot of Ohr pots on the market. Yes, smaller bowls are common and some are masterful. But serious collectors of Ohr focus on only about 500 works, his trophy pots that are over four inches in size, handled, manipulated, and subjected to radical glaze painting and experimentation. And, Ohr liked to say, 'God made no two souls alike' so every work he made is a unique creation, never repeated. Most of the 500 masterworks are owned by avid collectors who rarely deaccession, so when works this dazzling appear, it is a major event. The first pot, lot 53, boasts Ohr’s most sought-after glaze colour—red—which ranges on this piece from vivid to dark and clotted. Clouds of glaze in blue and other colours break through creating an impressionist storm that serve to heighten the glory of this vase. The surface is partly the achievement of the artist and partly that of his generous kiln. I am sure he never knew exactly what to expect when his kiln doors opened. If we now look at the form, the element Ohr insisted was the core of his aesthetic, we find a surprisingly cunning composition. The top and bottom halves are composed of two vessel shapes joined together. The matched handles marry the two shapes and give the pot a visual unity. Ohr mostly added handles when he was trying to bring balance to his more complex forms, or to make another kind of statement as in the work that follows. Handles are often missing on his simpler classical shapes. This reveals how considered his process of constructing pots was. He became a master at juxtaposing (perhaps juggling would be a better term) unlikely combinations of mass, volumetric shape, and line, the core components of vessel form. Yet they appear as spontaneous, accidental epiphanies. That was his genius, suggesting effortlessness even in his most extraordinary and laboured works. Applying handles to pots is how potters draw, a linear element anchored to a dominant volume. At its most banal a handle is merely an appendage for lifting and moving. At its best it is a dynamic element, a moving visual poem in line and few have matched Ohr’s lyricism in this regard. Ohr’s handles are similar to the way wrought iron is used for the lyrical fences, stair railings and balconies o

Auction archive: Lot number 54
Auction:
Datum:
5 Oct 2018
Auction house:
Phillips
London
Beschreibung:

Property from the Collection of Marty and Estelle Shack George Ohr Follow Mottled two-sided, two-handled vase impressed twice 'GEO. E. OHR' and 'BILOXI, MISS' on the underside glazed earthenware height 18 cm (7 1/8 in.) Executed circa 1895.
Provenance Clo, Ojo, and Geo Ohr, Biloxi, Mississippi James Carpenter Montague, New Jersey (acquired from the above in 1971) Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in the early 1970s) Acquired from the above by the present owner in the 1980s Literature Eugene Hecht, George Ohr: The Greatest Art Potter on Earth , New York, 2013, pp. 243-45, back cover (illustrated) Catalogue Essay In 1967, when James Carpenter a New Jersey antiques dealer, climbed up the ladder to the attic of the Ohr Brothers’ barn in Biloxi, Mississippi, he encountered a field of wooden boxes containing thousands of pots by the brothers’ father, George Edgar Ohr. At first the find, whilst big, did not seem that exciting, but as he began to wipe away fifty years of dirt and grime (the barn had been in use as an automobile repair business since 1916), the brilliant colours of Ohr’s radical polychrome glazes began to emerge. These pots comprised most of Ohr’s output of 'art' pots (he called them 'clay babies') made between 1895 and 1909. Ohr became reluctant to sell his work after bruising encounters with the snobbish North Eastern Arts and Crafts establishment who rejected him as a Southern outsider. Their reviews were often cruel, speaking of his creativity as a kind of insanity, hence his label, 'The Mad Potter of Biloxi.' Ohr began to hoard his own art pots, rarely selling his best work and instead making novelty ceramics to sell at the fairs. He made two predictions about his future. The first was that his work would become highly valued as art but by a later generation. The second was that the Nation would build a temple to his genius. He proved correct on both. Given the size of Carpenter’s acquisition of these pots it seems there must be a lot of Ohr pots on the market. Yes, smaller bowls are common and some are masterful. But serious collectors of Ohr focus on only about 500 works, his trophy pots that are over four inches in size, handled, manipulated, and subjected to radical glaze painting and experimentation. And, Ohr liked to say, 'God made no two souls alike' so every work he made is a unique creation, never repeated. Most of the 500 masterworks are owned by avid collectors who rarely deaccession, so when works this dazzling appear, it is a major event. The first pot, lot 53, boasts Ohr’s most sought-after glaze colour—red—which ranges on this piece from vivid to dark and clotted. Clouds of glaze in blue and other colours break through creating an impressionist storm that serve to heighten the glory of this vase. The surface is partly the achievement of the artist and partly that of his generous kiln. I am sure he never knew exactly what to expect when his kiln doors opened. If we now look at the form, the element Ohr insisted was the core of his aesthetic, we find a surprisingly cunning composition. The top and bottom halves are composed of two vessel shapes joined together. The matched handles marry the two shapes and give the pot a visual unity. Ohr mostly added handles when he was trying to bring balance to his more complex forms, or to make another kind of statement as in the work that follows. Handles are often missing on his simpler classical shapes. This reveals how considered his process of constructing pots was. He became a master at juxtaposing (perhaps juggling would be a better term) unlikely combinations of mass, volumetric shape, and line, the core components of vessel form. Yet they appear as spontaneous, accidental epiphanies. That was his genius, suggesting effortlessness even in his most extraordinary and laboured works. Applying handles to pots is how potters draw, a linear element anchored to a dominant volume. At its most banal a handle is merely an appendage for lifting and moving. At its best it is a dynamic element, a moving visual poem in line and few have matched Ohr’s lyricism in this regard. Ohr’s handles are similar to the way wrought iron is used for the lyrical fences, stair railings and balconies o

Auction archive: Lot number 54
Auction:
Datum:
5 Oct 2018
Auction house:
Phillips
London
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