Ossip Zadkine Belarus, 1888-1967

Ossip Zadkine (1888–1967) was a French sculptor and artist of Belarusian origin. Born in Vitebsk, he settled in Paris in 1909, where he became part of the vibrant artistic milieu that would shape the development of modern art. He encountered artists such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Alexander Archipenko and Marc Chagall, and became a close friend of Amedeo Modigliani.

Zadkine is best known for his sculpture, but he also created an important body of gouaches and works on paper. His early work was influenced by Cubism, which he gradually developed into a highly personal sculptural language. From the 1920s onwards, his work combined the geometric principles of Cubism with a renewed interest in the human figure and elements drawn from archaic and so-called primitive art.

Zadkine became an important figure within the development of modern sculpture. His work was exhibited extensively in Europe and internationally, and he influenced generations of artists through both his own practice and his teaching. From 1947, he taught at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, where he became an influential mentor to numerous young artists.

His sculptures and works on paper remain an important part of twentieth-century modernism, reflecting the radical changes in the representation of the human figure that defined the period.