OSSIP ZADKINE
In 1910, when Ossip Zadkine (1890, Vitebsk – 1967, Paris), known in Russian as Ossip Cadkin, finished his studies in London, he became a resident of Paris and part of the arts community responsible for the inception of many new art movements. During WWII, he sought refuge in the USA due to his Jewish ancestry but returned to Paris after the war. Zadkine, accompanied by his wife, the artist Valentina Prax, remained in Paris until his death. He was a versatile artist and the recipient of the first prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale of 1950. Zadkine’s art collection encompasses approximately 500 sculptures, several thousands of drawings, graphics, and several tapestry outlines, as well as numerous lyrical texts and poems.
Although Zadkine is most recognised as being associated with cubism, he, nonetheless, developed his idiosyncratic style. His Parisian dwelling has been meanwhile adapted into a museum.
In his bohemian Parisian milieu, Zadkine cultivated many friendships – with the likes of Henry Miller, who utilised Zadkine’s image as the basis for the character Borowski in his novel Return of Cancer, as well as Guillaume Apollinaire – both men celebrated as two of the most important literary representatives in the first part of the 20th century. A sculpture installed in the atrium of The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU) is dedicated to Zadkine.
SELECTED ARTWORKS