Untitled (Paul Soldner)

Paul Soldner served as an army medic during World War II. After returning to the US, Soldner pursued a career in the arts, eventually receiving his MFA in ceramics from Otis Art Institute in 1956. From 1959 to 1991 he taught at Scripps College, where he built a nationally known ceramics program and made the Ceramic Annual into the longest-running exhibition of contemporary ceramics in the nation. Inspired by the traditional Japanese technique of firing clay called raku, Soldner developed a new method known as American raku, as well as a low-fire process known as salt-fire bisque. Late in hiscareer, he cast clay sculptural vessels in bronze, as seen in this work next to the ceramic studio.