Ruth Duckworth (formerly Ruth Windmoeller) is an 87 year old sculptor who lives in Chicago and who is the subject of a 90+ piece exhibit at the Renwick Gallery. The show closes in mid-January.
I went to see it the other day not expecting much, but in fact found myself a Ruth Duckworth fan. She works primarily with two kinds of clay, one of which is a hard stone clay, the other a porcelain clay. I am not certain of her techniques, but believe that both are handshaped and neither are chiseled.
The pieces are untitled (with only a few exceptions). They are only semi-representational. Many have a primitive aspect to them, remininding you of African or Oceanic traditional pieces. They vary in size from small table top pieces, to a few that would not fit in your house. They vary in tone (gray to browns), they have rounded sides for the most part. Some hang on the wall.
As an extra, there is a movie about her that shows continually. I sat through about 20 minutes of it, but was not there at the beginning, and did not stick around. It is a very good movie, both about her and about her sculpture.
I recommend that you go see the show. (I don't recommend that you buy the book for sale at the gift shop on her work; that would set you back $70.)
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