A WORKSHOP WITH RUTH DUCKWORTH
Reviewed by Johann Polberg

The Guild sponsored a workshop with Ruth Duckworth at
the home of Sheila White on June 11th. The Whites’
home and garden provided an idyllic setting for a
workshop which was a rare opportunity for potters to
meet with and learn from one of the world's most
creative and successful ceramic artists.

Mrs. Duckworth has retired from teaching, leaving

the Chicago University this summer, and plans to “live
from her own work". She came to England in 1936, a
refugee from Hitler's Germany. At the Liverpool
School of Art her first studies were in painting and
sculpture. At one time she earned a living carving
tombstones, and in 1940 toured England with a travelling
puppet show she had helped to organize. During the
war a two year stint in a munitions factory resulted
in a breakdown in her health, and she returned to
sculpture. In 1953 a search for suitable glazes for
some sculptured panels led her into the study of
ceramics. For a few years she made tableware from
stoneware clay, achieving standards of design and
quality that have never been equalled in England. By
the 1960's she was moving back to sculpture and came
to the Chicago University as Professor of Ceramics.

Many of us are familiar with her work, if only from
the fine illustrations in the many good books about
English potters. Her name evokes a vision of exquisite
porcelain sculptures, poised in space, giving the
impression that at any time they may move and grow.
Space is the key word in describing Ruth Duckworth's
works. The space between and around the forms is an
integral part of each piece, whatever its size. But
in a more subtle way they interpret the Space Age in
which we live, giving it great beauty and meaning.
They bring to mind the magnificent photographs that
the astronauts captured for us in their flights to the
moon. Some have a fragile, unearthly quality, but
others look as aged and eroded as the Moon itself.

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