Ruth Duckworth
- Also known as
- Ruth Windmuller
- Born
- Hamburg, Germany
- Died
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Active in
- England
- Biography
Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1919, Ruth Duckworth moved to England in 1936, during the rise of Nazi power. There she studied art at Liverpool School of Art, Hammersmith School of Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, and she organized her first exhibitions. In 1964 she accepted a one-year teaching appointment at the University of Chicago but continued in this faculty post for 13 years and has lived since in the United States.
Duckworth's work is represented in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection as well as major collections in the United States, Europe, and Japan. She also has received many honors, including a 1993 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts and a 1996 Gold Medal from the National Society of Arts and Letters. The Museum of Arts & Design named her a Visionary in 2003.
Smithsonian American Art Museum "Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery Presents First U.S. Retrospective on Celebrated Ceramicist Ruth Duckworth" (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, press release, August 22, 2006)