In Memoriam

Sculptor Ruth Duckworth

Renowned sculptor Ruth Duckworth, 90, died Oct. 18 in Chicago after a brief illness. Duckworth was known for her range of work—from small to massive—including unpainted organic forms in porcelain and stoneware, and large-scale murals and sculptures installed in public spaces. The German-born sculptor was a longtime professor at the University of Chicago, and stayed in the U.S. because she found a greater acceptance of her large abstract pieces there. Duckwork continued to work at her large studio in a former pickle factory until six weeks before her death.

Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, one half of the first-names-only-please artist pair Christo and Jeanne-Claude, died Nov. 18 in New York of a brain aneurysm. She was 74. The husband-and-wife team was recently noted for their 2005 16-day installation of 7,500 gates draped with orange material in New York’s Central Park. The Morocco-born artist was the mouthpiece for their work, explaining, “Our art has absolutely no purpose, except to be a work of art. We do not give messages.”