Ruth Duckworth

Works

Biography

Ruth Duckworth was a noted modernist sculptor who created abstract pieces shaped in stone, porcelain, and bronze. In addition to her large public works, she created charming smaller pieces in unglazed white porcelain.  

Duckworth was born in Germany in 1919 and was educated in England due to the restrictions of the Nazi regime. Her early ceramic work was in traditional forms, but she soon began producing more abstract works. Her work wasn't the typical ceramics thrown on a wheel and fired in a kiln nor the standard forms of sculpture that used metal, stone, or wood. Initially rejected, soon her work was being emulated both in England and abroad. 

In 1964, Duckworth accepted a teaching post at the University of Chicago's Midway Studios. She remained there through the next decade, eventually deciding to settle permanently in Chicago. She produced both large and small scale works in ceramic and bronze. Her stonewall murals, notably "Earth, Water, and Sky" (1967-68) and "Clouds Over Lake Michigan" (1976), incorporated topographical swirls and abstractly rendered cloud patterns. Duckworth died in 2009. 

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