LONG BEACH.- The Long Beach Museum of Art opened an exhibit featuring works of art made by Ruth Duckworth. Internationally known for her hauntingly poetic sculpture, she is among the leading figures in the field of ceramic arts. Ruth Duckworth, Modernist Sculptor, the first U.S. retrospective of the work of this acclaimed artist, explores the full range of Duckworth’s remarkably creative life and features over 80 small- and large-scale works, along with original artist’s maquettes and photographs of monumental, site-specific sculptures. The exhibition examines almost 50 years of the artist’s work in all media, including recent bronze sculptures and ceramic wall murals, and early bronze castings and stone carvings that have never before been exhibited. The exhibition, organized by curators Thea Burger and Jo Lauria, is the only West Coast presentation and is accompanied by an out-of-print, limited edition catalogue.

Ruth Duckworth was born in 1919 in Hamburg, Germany. She lives and maintains her clay sculpture studio in Chicago, Illinois. After emigrating to England in 1936, she attended Liverpool School of Art (1936-1940), Hammersmith School of Art (1955), and Central School of Arts and Crafts, London (1956-1958), where she taught from 1959 to 1964. In 1964 she came to teach at the University of Chicago (1964-66, 1968-77), and has lived in the United States ever since. She has executed 24 major commissions, mainly ceramic sculpture or murals (1959 to present). She received an honorary doctorate from DePaul University in 1982 and became an American Craft Fellow in 1983.