Visual arts
uth Duckworth
Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin
Set in the scenic hills of north Wales, the re-built Ruthin Craft Centre is an ideal venue to present the work of Ruth Duckworth, one of the world’s most distinguished potters and sculptors. Work in stoneware, porcelain and bronze made over a period of some 50 years fill the gallery, although most pieces have been produced in the past 10.
Born in 1919, Duckworth came to this country from Hamburg in 1936, fleeing the growing persecution of the Jews who were forbidden from attending art school. Her sister had already settled in North Wales. After studying sculpture at Liverpool School of Art, she moved to London and worked as a stone carver before she became interested in clay and making pots.
A telephone call to fellow refugee and potter Lucie Rie asking about glaze recipes proved salutary. When Rie discovered that Duckworth knew nothing about glazes, she advised her to go to art school. For a time, Duckworth studied ceramics at Hammersmith Art School, but was deterred by the stuffy, inflexible course and moved to the more progressive Central School of Arts and Crafts, where she felt completely at home. In her studio in west London, she adopted a European modernist approach rather than the Leach orthodoxy currently in vogue, producing a range of modern-looking thrown and slip-cast tableware alongside hand-built vessels with dry, matt surfaces that were organic in feel.
An invitation to teach for a year at the University of Chicago provided a stimulating environment that fostered the new and experimental and she has remained in the United States ever since. She responded particularly to the possibilities of working on a large scale and to what she calls the “vitality” of the art community. This exhibition is the first large show of her work in Britain for nearly 50 years. In that time, a few pieces have be
en seen in mixed exhibitions, but have given little indication of the stature or range of the artist’s concerns.
In America, with a large studio and a welcoming audience for more investigational work, Duckworth stopped making domestic ware in order to focus on individual, one-off forms. Absorbing formal influences from Henry Moore and the more wayward ideas of the Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi, Duckworth’s individual approach quickly helped to establish her reputation and she was commissioned to carry out entire interiors of flowing, interlocking forms.
With a profound interest in the artefacts of ancient Egypt and the stylised representation of figures and animals, Duckworth creates forms with an analytical eye that is both sharp and clear with none of the sentimentality often associated with clay. A pair of seated figures with Egyptian creatures on their heads has a monumental quality, despite being only a few inches high. A bird form, sleek and streamlined, embodies the essence of the avian creature.
Some of the most effective pieces are the interlocking vessels forms in porcelain. Delicately made, the shapes become metaphors for the human body – separate but together. By contrast, the wall pieces reflect Duckworth’s concern with water and growth, the flowing, sinuous lines evoking a sense of movement and rhythm. Theo Burger has described Duckworth’s work as “organic abstraction”, an apt description that reflects the artist’s concern with the stylised figure and natural form. Unfettered by traditional associations with clay, in Duckworth’s hands, it becomes an expressive medium in its own right, organic abstractions that soothe and stimulate in equal measure. l
Emmanuel Cooper
Ruth Duckworth continues until September 6
uth Duckworth
Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin
Set in the scenic hills of north Wales, the re-built Ruthin Craft Centre is an ideal venue to present the work of Ruth Duckworth, one of the world’s most distinguished potters and sculptors. Work in stoneware, porcelain and bronze made over a period of some 50 years fill the gallery, although most pieces have been produced in the past 10.
Born in 1919, Duckworth came to this country from Hamburg in 1936, fleeing the growing persecution of the Jews who were forbidden from attending art school. Her sister had already settled in North Wales. After studying sculpture at Liverpool School of Art, she moved to London and worked as a stone carver before she became interested in clay and making pots.
A telephone call to fellow refugee and potter Lucie Rie asking about glaze recipes proved salutary. When Rie discovered that Duckworth knew nothing about glazes, she advised her to go to art school. For a time, Duckworth studied ceramics at Hammersmith Art School, but was deterred by the stuffy, inflexible course and moved to the more progressive Central School of Arts and Crafts, where she felt completely at home. In her studio in west London, she adopted a European modernist approach rather than the Leach orthodoxy currently in vogue, producing a range of modern-looking thrown and slip-cast tableware alongside hand-built vessels with dry, matt surfaces that were organic in feel.
An invitation to teach for a year at the University of Chicago provided a stimulating environment that fostered the new and experimental and she has remained in the United States ever since. She responded particularly to the possibilities of working on a large scale and to what she calls the “vitality” of the art community. This exhibition is the first large show of her work in Britain for nearly 50 years. In that time, a few pieces have be
en seen in mixed exhibitions, but have given little indication of the stature or range of the artist’s concerns.
In America, with a large studio and a welcoming audience for more investigational work, Duckworth stopped making domestic ware in order to focus on individual, one-off forms. Absorbing formal influences from Henry Moore and the more wayward ideas of the Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi, Duckworth’s individual approach quickly helped to establish her reputation and she was commissioned to carry out entire interiors of flowing, interlocking forms.
With a profound interest in the artefacts of ancient Egypt and the stylised representation of figures and animals, Duckworth creates forms with an analytical eye that is both sharp and clear with none of the sentimentality often associated with clay. A pair of seated figures with Egyptian creatures on their heads has a monumental quality, despite being only a few inches high. A bird form, sleek and streamlined, embodies the essence of the avian creature.
Some of the most effective pieces are the interlocking vessels forms in porcelain. Delicately made, the shapes become metaphors for the human body – separate but together. By contrast, the wall pieces reflect Duckworth’s concern with water and growth, the flowing, sinuous lines evoking a sense of movement and rhythm. Theo Burger has described Duckworth’s work as “organic abstraction”, an apt description that reflects the artist’s concern with the stylised figure and natural form. Unfettered by traditional associations with clay, in Duckworth’s hands, it becomes an expressive medium in its own right, organic abstractions that soothe and stimulate in equal measure. l
Emmanuel Cooper
Ruth Duckworth continues until September 6
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