Tim Keane of Hyperallergic examines works presented in Ruth Duckworth: Life as a Unity at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art and how Ruth Duckworth’s ceramics channel the world around us through elements of fragility, earthly phenomenon, and connection to the nonhuman.
“Life as a Unity — part of the program Art Design Chicago, spotlighting the city’s artistic heritage — focuses on Duckworth’s mid-to-late career zenith…. The high points in Life as a Unity are large wall sculptures created in conjunction with those public murals. Abounding in mesmeric lines, scalloped forms, and lustrous glazes that conjure wind erosion, cloud species, watersheds, and continental shelving, these works double as the exhibition’s connective tissue, as Duckworth moved between small-scale, gnomic cup and blade porcelain figures and mid-sized sculptures and statuary.… Duckworth’s legacy is an unwavering commitment to clay as a medium that expanded beyond the potter’s craft.” – HYPERALLERGIC
