Paul Soldner

American, (1921–2011)

Working as Peter Voulkos’s graduate student at the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, Paul Soldner gained a wide range of experience in ceramics experimentation. He developed and patented many technological improvements for ceramic technologies, including kilns, wheels, and mixers. An admired artist and educator, he also pioneered adapting sixteenth-century Japanese raku techniques for an American audience.

Soldner championed the expressionist style of the midcentury, and Platter is a good example of this style. He brought these ideas to his students at Scripps College in Claremont, California, where he taught from 1956 until his retirement in 1991. While at Scripps, Soldner was instrumental in building a large and important ceramics collection for the college’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery.