Artist Database

Ossip Zadkine was a prolific artist who produced paintings, drawings, and lithographs but is most well-known as a sculptor. He was born in Belarus and was sent to England at fifteen to stay with relatives where he became interested in woodworking after watching his uncle make furniture. Later, he moved to London to pursue his passion for art and became friends with British artist David Bomberg, who introduced him to classical sculpture. Zadkine moved to Paris in 1910, where he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and encountered Cubism. In Paris, he associated with artists such as Marc Chagall and Amedeo Modigliani, as well as American novelist Henry Miller. Zadkine held his first solo exhibition of sculptures at his Parisian studio in 1920, which was a great success. He went on to have over 100 solo shows during his lifetime – in Europe, the USA, and Japan. As a person of Jewish descent, Zadkine fled to the USA during World War II and returned to Europe at the war’s end in 1945. He was honoured with a major retrospective in 1949. Amongst other accolades, he received the sculpture prizes at both the 1950 Venice Biennale and the 1960 French Grand Prix National des Arts. Zadkine's former home in Montparnasse is now the Musée Zadkine, a museum dedicated to his life and work that was established by his widow in her will in 1981.