Paul Soldner Furniture
After studying under Peter Voulkos at the Los Angeles County Art Institute, Denver native Paul Soldner (1921–2011) became a pottery professor there in the 1960s, when the revolutionary California Clay Movement took root.
Soldner pioneered American-style raku firing methods, experimental updates of the centuries-old Japanese process, which involve pulling red-hot sculptures out of the kiln to be bathed in smoke or dipped in cold water, resulting in beautifully frazzled glazes.
“These new firing and post-firing reduction methods often led to spontaneous, unpredictable and quite wonderful results,” says Greg Nielson, of Dwell Floor Five, in Studio City, California.
Soldner’s raku vases, for instance, with their charred surfaces, seem to smile humbly through the scars of their past adversity.
Alongside the likes of Toshiko Takaezu, Soldner innovated chunky, funky ceramics in the mid-century and beyond. He is one Voulkos student at whom enthusiasts should take a serious look, advises dealer Jayson Lawfer.
The owner of The Nevica Project, a gallery with venues in Chicago and Kansas City, Lawfer explains that Soldner “was a master of raku and was credited with bringing the historic Asian technique to the U.S.” He adds that “Soldner used simple techniques of throwing pottery on the wheel, but to make his sculptural forms more interesting, he also pressed burlap into the clay and stepped on it to give it different textures."
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Late 20th Century American Organic Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Pottery
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Earthenware
20th Century American Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Earthenware
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Earthenware
Mid-20th Century Paul Soldner Furniture
Clay
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Soldner Furniture
Stoneware
2010s Mexican American Colonial Paul Soldner Furniture
Clay
1980s English Modern Vintage Paul Soldner Furniture
Stoneware
Mid-20th Century American Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Ceramic, Stoneware, Pottery, Clay
20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Ceramic
Mid-20th Century Dutch Mid-Century Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Ceramic
1980s Spanish Expressionist Vintage Paul Soldner Furniture
Ceramic
Late 19th Century Austrian Baroque Antique Paul Soldner Furniture
Majolica
1970s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Soldner Furniture
Metal
Late 20th Century Organic Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Pottery
2010s Mexican Paul Soldner Furniture
Clay
1960s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Paul Soldner Furniture
Clay, Stoneware
Late 20th Century North American Paul Soldner Furniture
Ceramic
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Earthenware
20th Century American Modern Paul Soldner Furniture
Stoneware
1970s Other Vintage Paul Soldner Furniture
Ceramic, Lucite
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Paul Soldner Furniture
Clay, Stoneware