OCEAN SPRINGS.- The Walter Anderson Museum of Art presents the exhibit George Ohr: Mischievous Master through January 28, 2007. The work of the turn of the 20th century artist and showman, George E. Ohr, returns to the Museum in a spotlighted show of work from the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum. This work is too beautiful to be out of sight during the rebuilding of the museum in Biloxi, so WAMA welcomes the work and the membership of the Ohr-Okeefe, as well as the entire Coast and its visitors. . One of the ways that WAMA is collaborating with our coastal colleagues is to offer exhibition space to the museums without walls.

George Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1857. In 1879, Joseph Meyer offered to teach Ohr the potter¹s trade. Ohr¹s family knew potters Francois and Joseph Meyer, a father and son from France who settled in Biloxi, but later moved to New Orleans. In New Orleans, Joseph Meyer taught George Ohr to use materials at hand, including local clays, to build rudimentary wood-burning kilns, and the formulae for old-world lead glazes. They produced utilitarian pottery wares and novelties for the tourist trade. George said he "took to pottery like a duck takes to water." In 1882, Ohr returned to Biloxi, to build his first pottery. In 1884, he exhibited over 600 pieces in the World¹s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. He used state fairs, international expositions and trade fairs to exhibit and sell his work.