Zadkine, Ossip

(1890-1967)

   sculptor, engraver

   Of Russian origin, Ossip Zadkine was born in Smolensk and studied in London and Paris (1909), where he became interested in the work of auguste rodin and in African sculpture. The cubist experience determined his development, as he experimented with form and space (Tête d'homme; Le Prophète). After World War I, in which he served as a volunteer and was severely gassed, he continued his artistic experimentation and eventually produced works with mythological themes (Ménades; Prométhée; Orphée, 1945). He also dealt with allegorical (Homo sapiens, 1955) and religious (Saint Sébastien) subjects and produced symbolic monuments honoring various artists (Hommage à Rimbaud, Lautrémont, Apollinaire, Jean-Sébastien Bach). He worked in wood, which he sometimes painted, and in clay and bronze, and developed an expressionist orientation evident in some of his works (Monument pour une ville détruite, Rotterdam, 1948-51). His studio in Paris now the Zadkine Museum.