The Folded Forms of George E Ohr [Nomad]

In the late 1800s, from his home in Biloxi, Mississippi, George E Ohr revolutionised ceramics.

The clay pots of this self-taught potter were precise and prolific. Their radical shapes and modern glazes marked an important shift in three-dimensional vessel making. As a body of work, they challenged the art establishment and cultural conventions of their day.

In his lifetime, Ohr’s beautiful, yet experimental oeuvre, failed to find its audience. When it was rediscovered in the 1960s, Ohr was heralded as a pioneer of modernist making.

Ohr’s astonishing abstracted forms were soon being collected and championed by the likes of David Whitney, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg - as well as the artist Jasper Johns, who regularly depicted his personal collection of George E Ohr pots in his paintings.

George E Ohr’s vessels can be seen on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Metropolitan Museum (New York) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).