Soldner portrait ca. 1965/Scripps College Archives.
Soldner
A iken Osborn Webb
A w a rd fo r Philanthropy
R obyn &
J o h n H orn
National leaders in the support
of contemporary crafts in a
range of mediums, and notable
encouragers of craft scholarship
as well, Robyn and John Horn
are also involved in creative
work of their own. Robyn is a
sculptor who works wood with
a chainsaw, and John is a letter-
press printer who has taught
at Penland. They are founding
members of the Collectors of
Wood Art, and Robyn holds
advisory positions with the Ar-
kansas Arts Center, the Whar-
ton Esherick Museum in Penn-
sylvania and the San Francisco
Museum of Craft + Design.
The Horns have been collect-
ing crafts and sculpture for 25
years; a book,
L iv in g w ith Form:
T he Horn Collection o f Contempo-
rary C rafts,
featured their col-
lections and the house near L it-
tle Rock that they built to
showcase the works.
It is ironic that Paul Soldner,
who is known for developing
“American raku” and low-tem-
perature salt firing, never
planned to be a potter. Soldner
(b. 1921) was pre-med when he
was drafted into World War
II.
After the war Soldner turned
to painting and received a
b . f .a .
from Bluffton College and an
m .a .
in art education from the
University of Colorado. At age
33 Soldner went to the Los An-
geles County Art Institute (now
Otis College of A rt and Design)
to become Peter Voulkos’s first
graduate student. For nearly 40
years Soldner taught at Scripps
College and Claremont Gradu-
ate School in California—he di-
vides his time between Califor-
nia and Colorado, home of the
Anderson Ranch Arts Center
he founded. Soldner’s work is
motivated by curiosity. “ Push-
ing boundaries and exploring
something new gives me en-
ergy,” he says.
oct/novo9 american craft 059
