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Paul Soldner: 1921-2011

Article originally posted by Stephanie Soldner Sullivan at http://paulsoldner.blogspot.com/

Paul Soldner, artist and innovator in the
field of ceramic art, passed away at the age of
89, at his winter home in Claremont, Cal., on
Jan. 3, 2011. His life was one of vision,
inspiration and teaching. As a professor at
Scripps College and Claremont Graduate
he

conducted around the world, he influenced

University, and through workshops
generations of ceramic art students who
found in Soldner an artist who was both
internationally acclaimed and personally
accessible, a teacher who taught not by rule,
but by example.

There are those artists who are born into a
solid, well-ordered artistic tradition, and create
entirely within it. Others deny tradition and
work as idiosyncratically as they please. A few,
the giants, go on to dominate the tradition
they helped bring into being. Paul Soldner
was one of these.

Accepted as a major force in the evolution
of contemporary ceramic art, Soldner’s career
was punctuated by important innovations
since the mid 1950s. He is best known as the
father of American raku and for his innovation
of low-temperature salt fuming.

It was Soldner’s openness to the creative
accident that led him to the “discovery” of
American raku.

“He was invited to demonstrate at a
crafts fair in 1960. Using Bernard Leach’s
A Potters Book, as a guide for traditional
Raku, a Japanese technique developed in the
sixteenth century, he set up a simple kiln and
improvised a few lead-based glazes. The initial
results were disappointing but his fascination
with raku persisted, and Soldner continued
to experiment [originating post-fire smoking
artwork, now known as American Raku.] He
gradually discovered he was more interested
in Raku as an aesthetic than as a tradition.
This attitude resulted in a much more playful
approach to form, scale, function, and
material.” (Garth Clark)

As Paul often said, “In the spirit of raku,
there is the necessity to embrace the element
of surprise. There can be no fear of losing
what was once planned and there must be an
urge to grow along with the discovery of the
unknown. Make no demands, expect nothing,
follow no absolute plan, be secure in change,
learn to accept another solution and, finally,
prefer to gamble on your own intuition.”

Born in Summerfield, Ill. on April 24,

1921, Soldner hadn't planned to be an
artist: he started out as a pre-med. student,

then enlisted into the Army Medical Corps
as a conscientious objector, serving with
Patton’s 3rd Army at the Battle of the Bulge.
His unit was one of the first to encounter
concentration camp survivors fleeing the
infamous Mauthausen Concentration
Camp in Austria as the camp was liberated.
Confronting the horror of the Holocaust
face-to-face eventually ignited in Soldner
a passion to create beauty through art. He
started with an interest in photography, but
at the age of 33, Soldner decided to become a
potter. He headed for the Los Angeles County
Art Institute, and became Peter Voulkos’ first
student, earning an MFA in 1956.

At Otis, Soldner

monumental floor pots, or sculptures, which

explored creating
stood up to eight feet in height, often with
expressionistically painted areas on the
forms. It was also at Otis that he designed
and ultimately began the manufacture of the
Soldner potters wheels and clay mixers that
became Soldner Pottery Equipment Inc.

In 1957, Soldner began teaching at
Scripps College and the Claremont Graduate
University, in addition to curating the now
famous Scripps Ceramic Annual exhibition
for 37 years.

Throughout his career, Soldner’s artwork
often mirrored contemporary issues and ideas
expressed by using culturally familiar shapes
impressed on three-dimensional sculptures
or on two-dimensional wall pieces. Soldner’s
artwork has been collected by major museums
worldwide and exhibited in the United States,
Europe, Canada, Latvia, Japan, Taiwan,
Korea, and Australia.

In 1957, Soldner and his wife, Ginny, began
building their home and studio by hand in
Aspen, Col. The principle that architecture
should improve with age directed his designs.
To that end, he used rocks and wood native
to the area. The Soldner compound was
one of the first in the area to acknowledge
environmental concerns by using the sun’s
energy with solar power for heating. In the
1960s, while living in Aspen, he co-founded
Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass
Village, Col.

Paul had a passion for life and enjoyed
the pleasures of living, including making his
own wine and jewellery, growing bonsai, and
designing hot tubs for himself and friends.

He wrote numerous articles and two
books, Nothing to Hide, and Kilns and Their
Construction. Soldner has been the subject
of three documentary films and is listed in
Marquis Whos Who in America, American Art,
and the World.

Paul Soldner leaves behind his daughter
Stephanie Soldner Sullivan, his son-in-law
Garrett Sullivan, grandchildren Colin and
Madelyn Sullivan; and his sister Louise

Farling.

LADYSMITH, B.C.
Potters Discussion
Group

Hello fellow potters:

The next Discussion Group meeting
will be on Sunday, March 6 from 1 p.m.
to 5 p.m. at my pottery in Ladysmith on
Vancouver Island. Everyone is welcome,
beginners to professionals, and there is
no charge. The idea is for a free flow of
discussion covering any problem areas.
I personally like to help with problems
around finding your style and the creative
process but am happy to help in other
areas too if I can. Mary Fox Pottery is
located at 321 Third Ave. Ladysmith
250.245.3778, maryfox@shaw.ca

An email or phone call to let me know
you are planning on attending is welcome
but not a requirement. Looking forward
to seeing you,

—Mary Fox

GUILD ee
of BRITISH

COLUMBIA
a

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « February 2011

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