Ruth Duckworth
Ceramic Sculptress

Ruth Duckworth (born 1919) is a ceramic artist with an aesthetic language like no other. Working in porcelain, she creates soft, serene pieces reminiscent of bone, where form, material and expression are one.

Duckworth fled her homeland Germany in 1936 to initially settle in the UK, where she studied sculpture. In 1964, she moved to the US, where she has been successful working in clay. Although Duckworth has had several large architectural commissions, she is perhaps best known for her smaller, distinct porcelain works. Her work seems to reflect some of the European sensibilities also present in works of other middle European emigrés such as Hans Coper or Lucie Rie.

"Duckworth manages to distill the very essence of morphological experience and sensation into these undemonstrative, abstract sculptures". (Peter Lane, Contemporary Porcelain, Craftsman House, 1995)

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