Ruth Duckworth exhibition

About

The exhibition will feature twenty ceramic sculptures dating from the 1980’s to 2009, all of which were drawn from her estate.

Born in Hamburg in 1919, Duckworth came to Britain in 1936 as a refugee to join her sister, Renate.  She attended the Liverpool School of Art and studied drawing, painting, and sculpture until 1940.  In the late 1940’s, Duckworth moved to London, where she would eventually become more involved with ceramics and study at the Central School of Art to learn about glazes.  She developed a highly individual approach, working both in porcelain and stoneware, and became an instructor at the Central School.

Duckworth was offered an opportunity in 1962 to teach in the United States at the University of Chicago.  It was there that she produced many large-scale sculptures and wall pieces and continued to create smaller vessel forms until her death in 2009.

Duckworth approached clay as a sculptor rather than as a potter, and brought an aesthetic rigour to her refined vessel forms, figurative sculptures and installations.  She helped shape a new way of thinking about ceramics in the second half of the 20th century.

The Art Institute of Chicago, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London are among the many international institutions that have acquired her work.

The exhibition at Erskine, Hall & Coe will be illustrated online and in a catalogue, and it will be viewable from Monday through Saturday, 10:00am - 6:00pm and free to attend.