CHANDLER: Celebrating a master of raku

By Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 1, 2009 at 6 p.m.
Updated January 1, 2009 at 7:09 p.m.

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Photo by American Museum of Ceramic Art

Paul Soldner's untitled 2003 stoneware pedestal piece.

Photo by American Museum of Ceramic Art

Paul Soldner's untitled 2002 pedestal piece.

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Now in his 80s, Paul Soldner long has worn the mantle of "father of American raku," the process in which a ceramic object is fired, then quickly exposed to other elements to create a rich surface texture and unexpected, sometimes revelatory colors.

Soldner's spontaneity and inventiveness have carried him through a solid career in Colorado and California, marked by innovation.

So it is a gift to kick off 2009 and the winter art season with "Paul Soldner Ceramics: A Master Teacher at Work," an exhibition at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver of more than 60 works dating back to the 1950s.

Gallery director Dan Jacobs and ceramics guru and DU professor Maynard Tischler assembled the work predominantly from loans from David Armstrong, founder of the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, Calif. A few pieces are from area collectors.

After earning degrees at Bluffton (Ohio) College and the University of Colorado, Soldner headed to the Los Angeles County Art Institute (now the Otis Art Institute). There he became the first graduate student of the famed ceramist Peter Voulkos, a pioneer in moving the art of ceramics into abstraction and sculptural forms.

Soon after, Soldner became a respected teacher at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. (since retired), and has conducted numerous workshops, including at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, which he helped found.

In this exhibition, Jacobs has included numerous pedestal pieces made through various firing techniques, plus a small array of more functional vessels, a lamp base, and a trio of early floorpot style vases that demonstrate Soldner's quest to push the limit on how high (or big) he can build a work in clay.

They are stunning examples of an artist's desire to extend the boundaries of an art form - on a parallel with Soldner's invention of kick wheels and other devices, though in one instance it is all about aesthetics, in the other all about simplicity.

That last word means something when considering the impact of Soldner's work. Jacobs says he hasn't pushed the concept of chronology here, but instead has grouped works by the similarity of form in order to demonstrate the variety of surfaces Soldner achieves through his insistence on trying different approaches.

In the case of the many pedestal pieces, which radiate out as abstracted forms, like a bursting bloom, it's especially moving to see what the artist did to his clay. There are shoe prints, the marks left by industrial material, the strong mark of fire. Jacobs said he believed Soldner worked with fire as much as clay, and that is evident in this show.

More than a decade ago, I attended a Soldner workshop at the old Roundtree Art Center and Colorado Clay Project on Welton Street.

Afterward, sitting in the hot August sun and downing malt liquor - some notes were a little foggy - he talked about his philosophy, and his "acceptance and appreciation of accidents and spontaneity." It was clear this artist was all about inclusion, an Eastern aspect befitting someone working in a traditionally Japanese technique.

In the resulting story, he continued: "In the West, there is the emphasis on perfection. Something that cracks is considered a mistake. In the East, instead of calling something 'crazed,' they call it a crackle. What they call an irregularity in color, we call flashing."

He compared it to the approach to taming the outdoors. "In the West, when you make a garden, you throw the rocks out. In the East, you bring the rocks back in."

That's Soldner, receptive, perceptive and persistent.

Mary Chandler is the art and architecture critic. chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

Paul Soldner Ceramics

* What: A retrospective exhibition of 50 years of work by Soldner

* When and where: Opening reception 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, through Feb. 22; Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, University of Denver School of Art and Art History, 2121 E. Asbury Ave.

* In conjunction: American raku workshop noon to 4 p.m. Jan. 9 in the school's studios, with ceramists/sculptors Bob Smith, Robert LeDonne and Lorri Acott-Fowler, hosted by DU assistant professor of ceramics Mia Mulvey; lecture and round-table discussion 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 19 with Mulvey, Jo Lauria and Jeanne Quinn, DU's Sturm Hall.

* Information: 303-871-3716; du.edu/art/myhrengallery .htm

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