Ossip Zadkine
Encyclopedia
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
who lived in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He is primarily known as a sculptor, but also produced painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s and lithographs.
Early years and career
Zadkine was born as Yossel Aronovich Tsadkin in VitebskVitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His father was Jewish and had converted to the Russian Orthodox religion; his mother was of Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
ancestry.
After attending art school in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Zadkine settled in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
about 1910. There he became part of the new Cubist movement (1914-1925). He later developed his own style, one that was strongly influenced by African art.
Zadkine served as a stretcher-bearer in the French Army during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and was wounded in action. He spent the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
years in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His best-known work is probably the sculpture "The Destroyed City" (1951-1953), represents a man without a heart, a memorial to the destruction of the center of the Dutch city Rotterdam in 1940
Rotterdam Blitz
The Rotterdam Blitz refers to the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the German Air Force on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch to surrender...
by the German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
.
Personal life
Zadkine married, in 1920, Valentine Prax (1899—1991), an Algeria-born painter of Sicilian and French Catalan descent. They had no children.The artist's only child, Nicolas Hasle (born 1960), was the result his affair with a Danish woman, Annelise Hasle.http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Paris-must-justify-its-right-to-Zadkine-s-estate/23413 Since 2009, Hasle, a psychiatrist, who was acknowledged by the artist and had his parentage legally established in France in the 1980s, has been party to a lawsuit with the City of Paris to establish his claim to his father's estate.http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Paris-must-justify-its-right-to-Zadkine-s-estate/23413
Zadkine died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1967 at the age of 77 after undergoing abdominal surgery and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. His former home and studio is now the Musée Zadkine
Musée Zadkine
The Musée Zadkine is a museum dedicated to the work of sculptor Ossip Zadkine . It is located near the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement at 100 bis, rue d'Assas, Paris, France, and open daily except Monday; an admission fee is only charged when an exhibition is on. The museum also...
.
Awards
- 1951 Vienna BiennaleVienna BiennaleThe Vienna Biennale is a biannual international art exhibition that takes places in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 2006.-History:The first Vienna Biennale was held in October 2006....
sculpture prize - 1961 Grand Prix National des Arts
Zadkine or his wife.also established a Musee Zadkine in the village of Arques in the Mid-Pyrenees region. It stands opposite a 12th century church that is itself of interest. Zadkine lived in Arques for a number of years, and while there, carved an enormous and powerful Christ on the Cross and Pieta that are featured in the church. The 12th century church and the 20th century cubist-influenced sculptures exist in dramatic and surprising harmony.