Ruth Duckworth

As Hitler’s power in Germany grew in the 1930’s, the Jewish mother and Christian father of Ruth Duckworth (1919-2009) sent their 17 year old daughter to live in England. A budding artist, she studied drawing, painting and sculpting at the Liverpool College of Art. During WWII she carved puppet heads and put on puppet shows; she also carved tombstones and worked at a munition factory. After the war she studied at Kennington School of Art to learn stone carving and then at the Central School of Arts and Crafts to learn ceramics. Her fame as a modern ceramist grew and she was invited to join the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1964. Here she created one of her best known works, Clouds Over Lake Michigan. After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1977, Duckworth moved her studio from the Pilsen neighborhood to Chicago’s North Side where she converted a former pickle factory building into a live/work space. Duckworth continued to create new works until she died in 2009.

Why this stop? The Brown Line Dame stop is a pleasant walk from Duckworth’s North Side home/studio.

Watch a short video on Ruth Duckworth’s life and work.